Another Day in the Department of Mysteries
by Amelie de Lorraine
Summary: What if Sirius hadn't died in the Department of Mysteries, but someone else did? Watch as the burden of the world shifts unexpectedly. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries–Chapter One 

Harry watched worriedly as his godfather and Bellatrix Lestrange dueled in front of the dias. Sirius had just thrown a Confundus charm at Bellatrix and missed. Bellatrix then returned with a Stunning Spell.

"You can do better than that," Sirius taunted his cousin with a laugh. Bellatrix swept her long black hair out of her face and laughed a menacing laugh.

"_Serpensortia!" _She flicked her wand in the air and with a thud on the marble floor, a huge black snake with large, venomous fangs came slithering toward Sirius.

"SIRIUS! NO!" Harry's scream echoed across the large atrium. He let go of the broken-nosed Neville he had been supporting, and as fast as his skinny legs could carry him, Harry ran toward his godfather, placing himself in front of Sirius and the snake.

The snake hissed loudly and, before anyone could utter a word, had plunged its two enormous fangs into the side of Harry's neck, bloody spurting in every direction.

Everyone in the room had stopped dueling. Neville, Luna, and Tonks all screamed aloud, but Sirius screamed the loudest of all.

"HARRY!" Sirius desperately caught Harry in his arms as the latter fell to the floor, pale, bleeding, and trembling. He took hold of a lock of his godfather's long black hair and looked straight into his now horrified and watery gray eyes.

"I'm…glad…you're…okay," the words were brittle and came out feebly as Harry shook uncontrollably. "You're…the greatest thing…that's ever happened to me…I love you."

"Harry, please don't go, please. You mean more to me than anything else in the world." Tears were now streaming down Sirius's face as he held Harry close. Harry stared backed at him for a moment longer, and then shut his eyes. He loosened his grip on Sirius's hair, and Sirius caught his hand."

"Harry…" Sirius pleaded. He kissed Harry's forehead, the tears hitting it. "I love you, too."

Bellatrix stared at the scene in shock. "I killed Harry Potter," she breathed. " I just killed Harry Potter!" She jumped into the air and hollered. Then, she skipped merrily. "I killed Harry Potter, I killed Harry Potter! I must tell the Dark Lord!"

She ran out of the atrium through one of the open ground doors. A red hot rage built up inside Sirius. He grabbed his wand and ran after her, shooting curses as he went.

"SHE KILLED HARRY!" His face was red with both grief and anger, his hair flew behind him like a banner as he ran.

Tonks, Luna, and Neville ran to Harry. "We have to do something," Tonks said, her eyes gleaming with tears. "Let's try CPR. Do you guys know what that is?"

"Yes," Neville sobbed, "but that won't help. He's already dead and the poison flooded his entire body. There's no way we can revive him."

"But there has to be. Come on Harry, wake up." Tonks cried and pressed on Harry's chest with her hands.

"Tonks!" Neville shouted. "There's nothing we can do. He's dead."

Sirius ran down the hallway right behind Bellatrix. "You stupid coward! Come back and fight!"

Bellatrix turned around and cackled at him. "Ah, do you want to avenge your poor stupid godson?"

That was the last straw. More determined than he ever had been, Sirius flicked his wand and shouted, "_Expelliarmus_!" Bellatrix flew into the air and landed headfirst onto the marble floor. Sirius caught her wand. Her head was bleeding.

Sirius approached her swiftly and kicked her in the side as hard as he could, breaking one of her ribs.

"You like to torture people," Sirius said, a crazy glint in his eyes. "Let's see how you like being tortured, Bella. _Crucio_!" Bellatrix let out an ear-piercing scream and twitched violently.

This continued for a long while, until finally Sirius shouted, "_Avada kedavra_!" A brilliant flash of green light hit Bellatrix Lestrange straight in the chest, and she was no more.

"That was for Harry." Sirius yelled as he spat on his cousin's stiff face.

Sirius ran back to the atrium. By now, the Death Eaters were gone and the Order members were crowding around Harry's body. Ron and Hermione had gained back their senses and were crying their eyes out, along with everyone else.

Remus walked over to Sirius and put his arms around him. "He risked all this for you, because he loved you so much."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Harry Potter, but I wish I did. All characters belong to JK Rowling.

**Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Two**

The sun was shining through the green trees of Godric's Hollow, but not on the faces of the mourners. The crunching of gravel under feet mingled with the sobs and the blowing of handkerchiefs.

His hands were clasped in front of him, trembling with stress from grief, as the wind blew as warm breeze through his black robes, causing them to billow. His head hung low, his long dark hair blowing swiftly in his face, but he made no move to brush it away.

His tears were now stained to his face like mildew on grass. He felt angry at himself because he could have done something. If only he had firecalled Harry sooner or sent him an owl, letting him know that he was all right. Harry would have then been safe with him, living with him in his house, playing chess and Gobstones with him, and maybe even Quidditch. They might have been sitting in the living room at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place at that very moment, joking and laughing, discussing about the Marauders and their adventures.

For Sirius Black was now a free man, cleared of all charges against him. He now legally owned Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. He had been offered a new position in the Auror Department at the Ministry, and his motorbike was now back in his possession.

But all of this was meaningless without Harry Potter in his life.

Everyone at the funeral was given a chance to speak. Dumbledore spoke of Harry's courage and bravery, that he was a true Gryffindor in all respects. Ron and Hermione each told of Harry's constant loyalty and friendship. Remus talked of his kindness and excellent studentship. Sirius, on the other hand, refrained from speaking. Grief had overpowered him, and he did not have the heart or the energy to speak to anyone yet.

Harry lay in a beautiful cherry oak casket, his face as white as snow, clashing with his untidy raven hair. His thin hands were folded neatly across his chest and his glasses were gently laid over his closed, sightless emerald eyes. The morticians had stitched together the wound in his neck where the snake had bitten him. He was clothed in an elegant scarlet and gold robe to symbolize his Gryffindor allegiance.

The mourners were allowed a final goodbye. They came up to his casket one-by-one and whispered into his deaf ears. Ron first, then Hermione. Ginny followed her, and so on. Finally, it was his turn. He was the last to say a proper goodbye to the one he cared most about in the world.

He touched Harry's cold hand and brushed his soft black hair out of his eyes. His tears hit Harry's forehead as he bent down to kiss it one last time.

"I love you, Harry…and I'm sorry." He whispered.

The casket closed and was lowered down into the ground next to two other graves. The new tombstone read:

HARRY JAMES POTTER

The Boy Who Lived

Born 31 July 1980

Died 6 June 1996

Once the dirt had been placed over the casket, everyone laid flowers of all sorts over the grave, leaving it the most colorful of all in the churchyard and marking that they would never forget The Boy Who Lived.

**Author's Note: **I hope you liked this chapter. Chapter three's coming up.


	3. Chapter 3

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Three

Sirius sat on his bed, staring at the opposite wall. The lights were dimmed very low and a soft rain surrounded the house at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Sirius was still allowing the Order of the Phoenix to hold secret meetings there, but more often than not, he refrained from being a part of them.

Suddenly, a gentle knock on the door reached his ears. "Sirius?" Remus asked quietly as he opened the door with a mild creak.

Sirius did not respond.

"Sirius, Molly said dinner's ready if…you want to come down."

"Why did this have to happen?" Sirius asked with a mixture of anger and sadness to his voice. He looked at Remus, his face showing no emotion. "He did nothing wrong."

"I know, Sirius." Remus walked over to the bed and put his hand on Sirius shoulder. "Sometimes things happen and we don't understand why, but everything has a reason. Nothing is coincidence."

"I know, it's just so hard." Sirius buried his face in his hands and lost control. He cried with all his might, the hardest he had ever cried before. "I just…can't get over the fact that he's gone. We were supposed to be a family and have a happy life together, just me and him, like father and son." He collapsed onto the bed and buried his face in his pillow.

"I need some more time alone, Remus."

Remus walked down the stairs slowly and quietly.

"He's not coming."

"Is he okay?" asked Molly worriedly.

"Well, when I came in, he was sitting on his bed, staring at the wall with the lights dimmed. Then, he started crying, and then he lay down on the bed. I think he might be asleep now. That, or staring horizontally at the wall. So, no, I'd say he's not okay."

"You don't think he's…suicidal, do you?" asked Tonks quietly from the far end of the table next to Ginny.

Remus shook his head. "I don't think so, just depressed."

"Aren't we all." Said Ron dully. " What are we going to do about You-Know-Who? The whole world's doomed!" 

"The whole world is _not _doomed, Ronald," retorted his mother angrily. "Harry didn't deserve to have that awful burden on his shoulders. It was not up to him whether You-Know-You lived or died. He is just as dangerous now as he was before."

"I agree," nodded Kingsley Shacklebolt from Ron's left. "You-Know-Who's threat has not changed. We have to keep fighting as we were before."

"Never give up." Hermione chimed in. "Harry led us through so much at school. What about the D.A? He wouldn't have wanted us to throw all the hard training away, and let Voldemort—oh, stop it, Ron—trample all over us and take over. His death would have been for nothing if we were to do that."

"She's right," a hoarse voice joined the conversation. Sirius entered the dining room, his face slightly red. "Harry wouldn't have wanted us to give up. He would have wanted us to give it our best shot and finish Voldemort."

He sat down at the table next to Remus and raised his glass. "For Harry," he said.

"For Harry," everyone echoed, glasses raised.

**Author's Note: **That's chapter three. I haven't started chapter four yet, but I've got a pretty good idea what it's going to be about. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update, with school and all. Anyway, until next time.

Beaucoup d'amour à tout le monde,

Amélie


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: PLEASE REVIEW! **I really need to know what you think, what I could do it improve, etc.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries--Chapter Four 

The next morning, the sky was covered in a blanket of gray and the wind was blowing hard, making it abnormally cold for summer. Sirius awoke to the aroma of bacon, eggs, and cinnamon that had drifted into his bedroom from the kitchen below, as did a muffled shouting.

When he walked down the stairs, the old wooden steps creaking all the way down, he spotted Molly in the kitchen talking sternly with Ron.

"You and Hermione may _not _join the Order. It's far too dangerous," she shouted.

Ron began to whine. "But Mum, we're almost adults. I'm sixteen and Hermione will be seventeen in September. We're old enough. Plus, Fred and George joined last summer."

"Yes, they did," Molly replied, looking regretful. "But that was a _huge _mistake. They were far too irresponsible to understand what goes on here. They don't even _do _anything, except sit in that joke shop of theirs all day."

"I think it's a wonderful idea, Molly," Sirius said as he stood in the kitchen door. "Ron and Hermione are much more responsible than Fred and George, and they've already seen so much. Much more than probably half of the Order." He ran his fingers through his hair absentmindedly. "They know how to fight, and they _aren't_ children."

Molly looked frustrated, her face reddened with anger. "Fine! Fine! Just don't come crawling to _me _when a Death Eater cuts off your arm or an ear or—" She stopped abruptly and sniffed. "What's that smell?" 

Ron started to laugh. Molly had become so distracted when arguing with Ron that she'd forgotten about the eggs. Smoke was rising from the pan and fire was issuing from the burner.

Later that day, Albus Dumbledore arrived at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. As a first order of business, he discussed the matter of Ron and Hermione's membership in the Order to Molly and Arthur.

"I know they've seen much," said Dumbledore thoughtfully, "and they can handle much. I believe they have the potential to be adequate members, Molly." He had noticed Molly's whimpers of protest. She was still not satisfied with them joining.

"Speaking of the two of them," continued Dumbledore. "I came to talk to them, Remus, and Sirius personally. May I ask where they are?"

"Here we are, Professor." Hermione's brown bush was visible in the doorway as she stuck her head in the room. Ron followed her.

"Excellent." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he moved his half-moon spectacles up his crooked nose. "Ronald, would you please be so kind as to fetch Sirius and Professor Lupin?"

"Yes, sir." Ron said immediately. He sprinted from the room with his sneakers squeaking behind him.

Dumbledore then turned back to a quivering Molly Weasley. "I'll think over Ron and Hermione's membership some more before I make a final decision, don't worry." 

When he had left the room, his light blue robes sparkling behind him, Ginny appeared in the doorway.

"Can I join the Order, too, Mum?"

Sirius did not remember the room very much, mainly because he had never been allowed in it as a child. It had been his father's personal library, no doubt filled with the worst kinds of Dark Magic available, considering no one else had ever been allowed in. It was perhaps the largest room in the Black household, but certainly not the most luxurious. The walls were painted a dark green, almost black, color. The lamps gave off a limited amount of light, barely enough for anyone to see the face in front of him or her, and the chairs and sofa (for there was only one) were dusty and uncomfortable. The bookcases were small and only about half full, probably because books of the sort were few.

Dumbledore sat in the center of the room so that the other four occupants could see him. Ron and Hermione sat on the sofa, and Remus and Sirius sat in two of the chairs, but not before wiping them down.

"I have some very important information to give to the four of you," Dumbledore began. "Of course, it concerns Harry, and of course, I'm giving it to you because you were the ones closest to him during his lifetime."

Everyone listened in silence, only the wind could be heard whistling through the trees outside.

Dumbledore continued. "Now, this information you can share with the other members of the Order. It is your decision to make among the four of you whether you want to do so or not." He paused for a moment to look at the four in front of him and began again. "First, all of you need to understand why Harry was a target for Voldemort in the first place." Here, Dumbledore flicked his wand and his silver pensieve appeared. "There was a prophecy made concerning Harry and Voldemort. Sirius, you already know of it, but the others do not."

Sirius nodded. The others listened intently.

Dumbledore placed his wand in the pensieve and twirled it around. Then, the silvery image of Sibyll Trelawney, the Hogwart's Divination professor, arose from the pensieve like a volcano rising from the ocean.

Her mouth opened and a voice none of them had ever heard before issued from it.

"_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies." _

"Everyone knows what happened as a result of that prophecy," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort found out about it, he went after the Potters, and Harry stopped him. That's why Voldemort had been after Harry so many years after."

"Wait," said Hermione. "It says 'either must die at the hands of the other,' and 'neither can live while the other survives,' so why isn't Voldemort dead if Harry is?"

"Because Harry wasn't killed by Voldemort himself," Sirius told her. "The prophecy meant that _only _if Voldemort tried to kill Harry, not if someone else did. Right?" He looked over to Dumbledore for support.

"That's my interpretation as well," Dumbledore nodded to Sirius. "If _Voldemort _had killed Harry, then he would have died, too. And now I am under the impression that 'either must die at the hands of the other' could mean that either must die under the leadership of the other. For example, Harry was killed by Bellatrix, who was under Voldemort's leadership. So, that means someone on our side must kill Voldemort. " 

"So, what are we supposed to do if the prophecy is no longer valid?" Ron asked, looking confused.

"Well," replied Dumbledore. "That is the most important item this meeting concerns. Have any of you ever heard of a Horcrux?"

"Yes," Remus Lupin spoke for the first time. "It's a device in which a person can place a piece of his or her soul. The maximum anyone can break a soul into is seven pieces, and the only known way to destroy a Horcrux is through the use of basilisk venom."

"Exactly right, Remus," said Dumbledore.

"So," Ron's blue eyes widened with understanding as he shifted his weight on the sofa. "That's how Yo-I mean-Voldemort managed to survive the killing curse that rebound on him the first time he tried to kill Harry. Because he used Horcruxes." 

"Yes," agreed Dumbledore. "He originally split his soul into seven pieces. However, I have reason to believe that he accidentally split himself into eight pieces. Harry was a Horcrux as well." 

Everyone gasped. Sirius started speaking in anger. "So that's why Voldemort could plant visions in his head? Because he had a piece of Voldemort's soul inside him?"

"I believe so, Sirius." 

Sirius growled in anger. Hermione reached out from the sofa and took his hand in hers.

"So that means one of them is already destroyed?" asked Remus.

"Three of them, actually," corrected Dumbledore. " Harry, Riddle's diary that he destroyed in his second year, and this ring." Dumbledore held out his hand to show them all. On his left index finger was a ring with a small cracked stone in the middle. "I destroyed it myself."

"And…you want us to destroy the others? And so…kill Voldemort?" asked Sirius, still clasping Hermione's hand.

"Yes," Dumbledore surveyed all of them closely through his half-moon glasses. "You see, when I destroyed this ring, a deadly poison somehow passed through me. I've been given an estimated nine months to live. So, I won't be able to take care of all the Horcruxes myself. Therefore, I leave the task to all of you since Harry can no longer complete it."

**Another Author's Note**: That's chapter four. I'll probably have chapter five ready tomorrow, but I'm not so sure after that. Again PLEASE REVIEW so I can know how I'm doing. Merci!

Beaucoup d'amour à tout le monde,

Amélie


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: PLEASE REVIEW! **I'm in desperate need of feedback. Merci.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter 5 

The newfound quartet began an interesting start the following July morning. Ron and Hermione were worried about how exactly they were to go about finding Horcruxes during the school year. They both knew that there was no way that they could continue school and find Horcruxes at the same time.

"You can't drop out of school," Remus said pensively. "You'll never get anywhere if you don't finish your education."

"But we won't be able to get _anywhere _if Y-_Voldemort_-wins." Ron complained, whispering so that Ginny, who was sitting in the chair in the corner of the living room reading, could not hear their conversation. "We can't go to school. We have to help you and Sirius."

"He's right," Hermione piped up quietly. "I know this is a shock coming from me, as I love school so much, but we _have_ to help you and Sirius. You _need _our help."

Remus's eyebrows knitted. "Your parents will not think fondly of this, especially your mother, Ron. You know that."

"We won't think fondly of what?" Molly Weasley asked as she walked into the front door with her arms full of grocery bags. She put them down and took off her raincoat. She was dripping with rain from head to foot.

"I need to talk to you." Remus pulled Molly by the arm into the kitchen, closing the door behind him. "Yesterday," he pushed his graying light brown locks of hair out of his eyes and sighed. "Yesterday, Dumbledore told us that we had to…go on a mission."

"Well, what kind of a mission are we going on?" Molly asked sweetly as she placed the grocery bags on the counter.

"Not you, exactly." Remus hesitated. "Just me, Sirius, Ron, and Hermione."

"Well, okay. But, you still haven't answered my question. What kind of mission?" 

"A sort of…_scavenger_ hunt. One that's probably going to take a long time, most likely a few months. Ron and Hermione might not be able to continue school. At least not this year." Remus paused and sighed again, dreading Molly's reaction.

Her brown eyes narrowed. "No," she said firmly. "No. They are _not _giving up their educations."

"Molly, this is serious. They have to do this." Then, an idea came to him. "We'll teach them. Sirius and I. We can give them lessons…I _am _a former teacher. I know Defense spells and mechanisms, and Sirius is very clever. He knows everything about everything. It'll work out, I promise." 

"When are you planning on doing this _scavenger _hunt, Remus?" Molly asked dangerously. Her hands were now planted on her large hips and her eyes were still narrowed, burning into his blue ones.

"At the start of the school year, perhaps," Remus replied hurriedly. "We haven't gotten all the information from Dumbledore yet." He was quite nervous. He absolutely _hated _Molly's temper tantrums, which were very frequent nowadays.

Meanwhile, Sirius sat in his mother's bedroom next to a still injured Buckbeak the Hippogriff. His leg was now bound in special cast. Sirius loved spending time with him, feeding him, stroking his magnificent wings. Buckbeak always took the misery away from him.

Buckbeak let out a neigh of pain, his large eyes focused directly on Sirius.

"I know, Buckbeak," Sirius nodded, stroking Buckbeak's wings to calm him. "I'm in pain, too. You're just lucky yours is only physical and temporary. Mine'll be with me forever." Buckbeak gently nudged Sirius's cheek with his beak as a sign of sympathy.

"Thanks, Buckbeak." 

A loud crash of thunder from outside the window made both of them jump. It caused Sirius to divert his eyes from Buckbeak. Suddenly, he noticed something white sticking out of the mattress of his parents' old bed. He pulled it out.

It was an envelope. Inside was a letter with all-too familiar handwriting.

Dear Sirius,

I'm putting this letter in your mother's bed because I know you spend a lot of time in this room, what with Buckbeak and all. I figured this would be the easiest place for you to find it.

I just wanted to tell you how much I love you and how sorry I am for all the things I've put you through. Always having to look after me and protect me. I appreciate it, but you don't have to do it, although I know you won't listen to me. I'm so glad to have finally found someone who will protect me and love me as his own If I really do have to fight Voldemort, at least you'll be by my side no matter what. You're the greatest thing that's ever happened to me.

If I happen to die in this war, which, of course, is a possibility, me being Voldemort's number one target and all, I want you to be aware of all of the above, and most importantly, I want you to stay happy. Don't be sad and stop living your life just because of me. I'll be in Heaven with Mum and Dad, free of all suffering. No more scar, no more of The Boy Who Lived business. So, if anything like this ever does happen, don't be discouraged. Like you told me: the ones that love us never really leave us.

And I Love You,

Harry


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **I had to cut this chapter because it was way too long. So the rest of it is in chapter seven. I also wanted to say thank you for the wonderful reviews, supporting me and saying this is such a good story. I honestly didnlt think it would be that good. I really appreciate it. Please continue reviewing.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Six

By late August, the quartet was almost ready for action. Hermione had told her parents nothing of her adventure and convinced them that she would still be in school, and Remus had finally been able to convince Molly the two young wizards would be all right with himself and Sirius. The only real problems facing them now were how to find the other five Horcruxes and where to obtain basilisk venom to destroy them.

On this particular day, the first sunny one in ages, everyone was running off in different directions. Ron was trying to take the ever-lingering pressure off his neurotic mother by explaining to her (off the top of his head) what the four of them would be doing, Sirius was keeping to himself (as he was most of the time nowadays), Remus was having conversations with various Order members about what to do in the upcoming months, and Hermione was spending her time researching basilisks in the Black family study. Until Ginny walked in.

"Hermione," Ginny's small voice diffused into the room like perfume. "Could you help me look for my _History of Magic _book, please. I don't know where I left it."

Hermione sighed and slammed the book she had been reading (_Dark Creatures _by Susanna Ultermeyer). "Sure. There's nothing of use in here anyway." She heaved her tired self up and walked towards Ginny. "So, where'd you last see it?"

"I think I left it in the living room, but I'm not sure." Ginny replied.

They walked into the living room, a large room with two sofas, a loveseat, a wooden chair in the corner, and a bookshelf. The walls were dark red and matched the plush carpet underneath their feet. The two girls started picking pillows off the sofa, upturning the cushions, and taking books off the shelves, just in case Ginny hadn't accidentally mistaken her book for one of the Blacks'.

Hermione pulled back a dusty leather book from the shelf and sneezed as she blew the dust off of it. Noticing it wasn't the book she was looking for, she reached to place it back on the shelf, when she saw something shoved in the back of the shelf behind where the book had been. She took it out. It was a heavy golden locket with a large letter "S" on the front. But, before she could even ponder a way to open it, her vision changed.

A handsome young man with black hair was standing in the middle of a small island in a large lake filled with eerie green water. He tipped back his head to drink a jello-looking liquid from a small basin in front of him. At the bottom of the basin was the golden locket.

"_This must be the Horcrux," he said. It pulled it out of the basin and replaced it with a look-alike locket. "Take it back to the house," he ordered the house elf who was standing beside him._

"_Yes Master Regulus," the house elf replied. Then, he Apparated, leaving the young man alone. _

_Suddenly, strange creatures arose from the lake around the island. They looked like corpses, with hollow eyes and scraggly wet hair. They walked slowly ashore towards the young man, who looked back terrified, and screamed._

The world began to spin around her, and Hermione found herself back in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, a concerned Ginny stooping over her.

"Are you okay?" Ginny asked, offering Hermione her hand to help her off the floor. "You look horrified."

"I-I'm fine," Hermione breathed, in total shock at what she just saw. "I'm just dizzy. I think I fell over."

Remus was wiped out after explaining to everyone a hundred times the plans for the next few months. Someone always wasn't listening and so he always had to repeat himself. By now, everyone had left and all he wanted to do was relax. But he knew that would be hard to do with thoughts of the big adventure they all soon had to undertake hanging over him.

He was walking down the hallway to the bedroom that he currently occupied for the night, when he noticed a light on from an open door.

It was Sirius on the other side. He was standing in front of the closet, hanging up clothes from a trunk at his feet. A trunk with the initials HP on it.

"Sirius, what are you doing?" Remus asked as he entered the room.

"Hanging up Harry's clothes," replied Sirius with no particular emotion and not turning around to look at Remus.

"Why?"

"Well, I'm not going to give them away, am I?" Here, Sirius stopped and looked at Remus. "I figured if I get married and have sons that they might want to wear them some day."

That seemed a bit odd to Remus, considering all of those clothes had been hand-me-downs from Harry's cousin Dudley. They had all been far too big for him, always making him look much thinner than he really was and causing him to trip and fumble with them constantly. Not knowing what else to say to this, Remus asked, "Do you need help?"

"It's alright," Sirius turned around and resumed what he was doing. "I've got it." He bent over the trunk and pulled out something at the very bottom. It was a silvery piece of cloth, almost transparent with the bottom of the trunk. Sirius looked at it thoughtfully.

"It's Harry's Invisibility Cloak," said Remus from behind Sirius.

"Yeah, we might need it," Sirius folded it gently into a perfect rectangle and placed it deep inside his pocket. "We'll take it with us."

He bent down again, this time taking out a newspaper-wrapped package, slightly heavy and rectangular. He unwrapped it. It was the two-way mirror that he had given Harry just before he left for school after Christmas break.

"We might need this, too." He said.

Then, out of nowhere came a loud yell from down the stairs.

"SIRIUS!" Hermione's loud voice echoed throughout the house, as did the creaking of the stair steps as she bolted up each one faster than a Numbus 2001.

"SIRIUS!" Hermione's bushy hair flew back in her face as she halted in front of the room Sirius and Remus had just barged out of in search of all the commotion.

"What is it Hermione?" asked Sirius, his pale face etched with worry. "What happened?"

"Ginny-Ginny needed help finding her book and--and," Hermione was panting like mad, sweat shimmering on her face like glitter.

"Hold on, Hermione." Remus pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed Hermione's face with it. "You're dripping with sweat. Now, calm down." He led Hermiione into the room so that she could sit on the bed. "Now calmly explain what happened. Don't rush."

Hermione took a deep breath. "Okay. Ginny needed help finding her history book, so we went into the living room to look for it, and I found this big locket." She held it up to show Remus and Sirius. "And I-I saw this young guy on this island in the middle of this lake, and he took this locket out of this bowl and said 'this must be the Horcrux.' And then he gave it to his house elf and said 'take it home,' and then these really creepy things came out of the lake after him and—" she paused to take another deep breath. "And then I was back with Ginny in the living room." Her brown eyes widened as she looked at Sirius. "Sirius, I think the guy was your brother. The house elf called him 'Master Regulus,' and he, the house elf, looked a lot like Kreacher." She panted and fell backwards onto the bed. "I need some water."

Just then, Ron appeared in the doorway. "Hey, what happened?"

"Ron, go get me some water," ordered Hermione, still sounding as though she was out of breath.

Ron scowled. "Good grief, Miss Bossy," and walked back out of the room.

"So," Sirius began, taking a seat on the bed. "You think this locket is another Horcrux?"

Hermione nodded shakily, still lying on the bed. "I'm sure of it."

Ron returned about a minute later with a glass of water. He lifted it to Hermione's lips for her to take a sip. "Thanks," she said weakly.

"Sirius! Remus!" Molly's voice floated to them from down the stairs. "Dumbledore's here!"

For Hermione's sake, Dumbledore came up the stairs to the bedroom, carrying his pensieve.

"I'm going to leave this with all of you," Dumbledore told them, placing the pensieve on the dresser. "You'll need it. But first, I need to explain several things to you. One is that I have reason to believe Nagini, Voldemort's snake, is a Horcrux."

"How can you be sure?" asked Remus, standing in the doorway.

"For one, Tom Riddle, being a Parselmouth, has a great need for snakes, so it would be quite easy to assume he would choose a snake as a Horcrux." Dumbledore replied. He was paler than usual, and his crystal blue eyes weren't twinkling like they were normally. "Harry also mentioned that in a dream he saw himself as a snake attacking Arthur Weasley this passed year. With Harry himself being a Horcrux, the only way he could have seen a snake doing something like that would be if it were one, too. He wouldn't have been able to see it otherwise, just like he wouldn't have been able to see Voldemort's other doings."

Sirius cleared his throat. "And the locket. Hermione found it in the living room and thinks it might be a Horcrux, too."

Hermione nodded from the bed and told Dumbledore about her vision.

"It was Slytherin's locket," Dumbledore explained, after having examined it. "Hufflepuff gave it to him after they opened Hogwarts a thousand years ago. I think you're right, Miss Granger. It probably is a Horcrux, given Riddle's ancestral relations to Slytherin. Ouch—" Dumbledore winced suddenly and clutched his right hand close to his chest. It was completely black, as though it were covered in charcoal.

"Are you all right?" asked Remus, coming forward to help, as did Sirius.

"Is that from the ring?" asked Ron.

"Yes," grunted Dumbledore, massaging his black hand. "I'm sorry I-I must go. I'm so sorry, please forgive me. Good bye."

With that, Albus Dumbledore left the house, still clutching his injured hand to his chest.

**Author's Note: **That's the longest chapter yet, but they might get longer as the story goes along. I'll update as soon as possible. Please review and thank you for reading.

À Bientôt,

Amélie


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **I hope you all liked Chapter Six. Here's Chapter Seven. Please remember to review so I can know what you think. Merci mille fois.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Seven

"I hope he's okay," said Hermione worriedly. She sat up in the bed and drained the rest of her glass of water.

""Well, if he's _dying, _he's obviously not okay," replied Ron, rolling his eyes.

"I know that." Hermione looked offended. Ron was clearly trying to make her out to be someone stupid.

"Well, then why did you ask that?" Ron asked bitterly. "If he's dying, he wouldn't be okay, unless he was just _wishing _for death."

"I can still be concerned for him!" retorted Hermione angrily.

"Should we find out what's in the pensieve?" asked Remus politely, obviously trying to change the subject. He walked over to the large silver stone bowl and placed it on a chair in the center of the room.

"Good idea," agreed Sirius. "Come on, you two." He, too, walked over to stand in front of the pensieve and beckoned Ron and Hermione to follow him. "We're not going without you."

Ron and Hermione trudged forward, making sure they were on opposite sides of the pensieve.

"So," Ron asked inquisitively. "Do we just…stick our heads in all at once?"

"Yes," replied Remus, gazing into the large bowl. "It looks large enough for all of our heads to fit."

"Except maybe Ron's," muttered Hermione.

"Now," said Remus, acting as though he were a referee in a Quidditch match. "On the count of three, we all stick our heads in. One…two…three!"

All of them felt the sensation of being spun around and around, as if in a giant ball. The scene changed, and all four of them found themselves in a very crammed room. It was full of all kinds of silvery orbs, golden globes, boxes of all sizes, and strange plants. It looked to Ron and Hermione like a cross between the Herbology and Divination classrooms. A very fat woman, even fatter than Umbridge, sat in a large purple velvet seat in the middle of the room.

The doorbell rang, and the woman shouted, "Hokey, get the door!" A little female house elf wrapped in a dirty bed sheet came running out of the kitchen and to the door. When she returned, she was followed by a handsome young man with black hair and a pale face.

"That must be Voldemort!" Hermione said, pointing at the young man.

"Well, who _else _would it be?" asked Ron dryly, rolling his eyes again. Hermione scowled in his direction, but Ron didn't seem to notice as he continued speaking. "We're trying to find Horcruxes, aren't we? No doubt he makes one in this room right now. Who else would be involved in a memory with Horcruxes?"

"Shh!" ordered Sirius. "They're talking!"

They all watched as the young Voldemort ran a hand through his hair as he spoke. "Nice to see you again, Miss Smith. Mr. Burke would like to make an improved offer on the goblin-made armor…"

"Mr. Burke," began Hermione, "as in the guy who owns Borgin and Burke's, that shop in Knockturn Alley?"

"Probably," said Remus. "Voldemort must have worked for him."

"Oh, Mr. Burke!" Phooey!" scoffed Miss Smith, waving a fat arm as if to dismiss the subject. "I have something to show you, Tom. Will you promise not to tell Burke I've got it? I won't sell it to anyone, especially not him. If he found out I had it, he'd be all over me. But, I can show it you, Tom. You'll appreciate it for its history."

"I'll be glad to see anything Miss Hepzibah shows me," Voldemort replied in a sickeningly sweet voice. So sweet, it seemed everyone except Hepzibah Smith could see he was faking it. To make it worse, he accompanied it with an even more sickening smile.

"Hokey, go fetch our _finest _treasure to show Mr. Riddle," Hepzibah said to her house elf who was standing beside her chair.

Hokey obeyed and left the room. She came back carrying a little leather box, which Hepzibah took and opened the lid. Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and Remus all had to crane their necks to get a look at what was inside.

Hepzibah reached inside and pulled out a small golden cup with two tiny golden handles and a painting of a badger on the side of it. Voldemort eyed the cup greedily.

"It's been in my family for centuries," said Hepzibah proudly, displaying the cup in her chubby hands. "Did I tell you I'm a distant relation to Helga Hufflepuff?"

Sirius looked closely at the cup. It looked familiar somehow...Where had he seen it before?

Voldemort was either ignoring her or didn't hear her. He continued to stare eagerly at the cup, looking ready to snatch it from her hands, much like a tiger stealthily watches for a chance to snatch its prey. Suddenly, something strange happened. His brown eyes momentarily flashed a bright red color.

Everyone watched, scared to see what would happen. Hepzibah must have seen the change and gotten a little scared, too, because she asked, "Are you alright, Tom?"

Voldemort cleared his throat and blink. "What? Yes, I'm fine. Nothing's wrong. I think I'd better be going. Mr. Burke has a fit when I'm late. Thank you for your time, Miss Smith. It was a pleasure."

The quartet, along with Hepzibah and Hokey, all watched as Voldemort turned and quickly left the room. He left so quickly, in fact, that a heavy bearskin tapestry hanging on the wall in the hallway fluttered as he walked passed it and out the front door.

Hepzibah delicately placed Hufflepuff's cup back into the leather box. "Poor dear, they must work him to the bone in that shop."

"I think we're leaving," said Sirius. The memory dissolved and the four found themselves in a different location. They were in an old wooden cottage that looked as though it dated much farther back than Hepzibah Smith's.

"I've heard of Hepzibah Smith," said Sirius. "She was supposedly accidentally poisoned by her house elf and died." He sighed and stared out into space. The cup was bothering him. _Where had he seen it before? _

"Yeah right," remarked Ron sarcastically. "After seeing _that, _we know exactly who killed her. I mean, did you guys see his face? He looked ready to eat that thing."

"Right," said Hermione. "Voldemort must have come back to get the cup and murdered Hepzibah. Then later, he must have made it into a Horcrux."

"My thinking exactly," nodded Remus. "Although, how could Dumbledore have gotten the memory if it wasn't his own?"

"Maybe the house elf gave it to him," suggested Ron. "Who knows?"

"Where are we now?" asked Hermione, glancing around the old house.

"Probably another one of Voldemort's memories from earlier in his life," said Sirius, shrugging his shoulders, his mind still on the cup.

Suddenly, the four of them heard voices coming from the living room. They turned around to see three teenage boys arguing loudly over something. Two of the boys had crystal blue eyes and straight, shoulder-length auburn hair. The third boy also had clear blue eyes and shoulder-length hair, but his was curly and golden. All three wore old-fashioned, lace-collared robes. This memory was definitely from before Voldemort's time.

"She doesn't _like _you, Albus," the youngest-looking of the boys, one of the ones with the auburn hair, said frustratedly and slowly, as though he were talking to someone with a very low IQ.

The four on-lookers exchanged glances. "Albus?" they all gasped at once. They were gazing into the memory of a teenaged Albus Dumbledore.

"Well, I don't care if she doesn't like me," retorted Albus haughtily. "It's _my_ responsibility to take care of her. _You_ need to finish your education, Aberforth. There's no way you can look after her."

"I could care less about my education," Aberforth replied in a rage. "What I care about is my sister! Her brain can't handle being all over the world. It can barely handle living in this house. If she went with you, she'd freak out even more and get even more disturbed than she is now."

"She'll get better as soon as we make the _world _better." The handsome blond boy who was standing next to Albus had joined the conversation. He had a German accent and like Albus, a bossy, arrogant sort of voice.

"We'll fix it so that people respect her the way they should." Albus supported his friend whole-heartedly.

"With all that Dark Magic you two use, all you'll do is make the world _worse_! Oh, I've heard you two talking at night," Aberforth had noticed that the two boys in front of him were staring with identical fake looks of confusion. "Always sneaking out and saying all kinds of stuff about how you're going to blow up Muggles and all that stuff about 'the Greater Good' or whatever you guys call it."

"We'll do all that," said the German boy proudly. "You'll see, Aberforth. And you'll be begging us for mercy once we have."

"Whatever, dingbat," muttered Aberforth.

Evidently, Aberforth's voice wasn't low enough. Following that remark, the German boy lunged forward and pushed Aberforth back into a table behind him.

"Oh, no!" Hermione squealed. She covered her eyes. Sirius put his arms around her and she buried her face in his chest.

Aberforth drew his wand and fired a curse at the German boy's head, but the other boy was quicker.

"_Crucio!" _The German drew his wand and pointed it directly at Aberforth, who screamed in pain, writhing and squirming on the floor, looking much like a tortured mouse.

"GELLERT! NO!" Albus shouted at the German boy. He, too, pulled out his wand and started yelling out curses.

Aberforth was on his feet again. "_Lacarnum inflamarae_!" he shouted. Fire exploded from the tip of his wand, grazing the right side of Gellert's face, causing him to scream in pain. His face was now an angry reddish purple color, blistered and burned. The rest of the fire had hit the wall behind him and had gone up in flames.

Albus screamed and turned around, shouting "_Aqua_!" Water poured from his wand, extinguishing the fire. On the other side of the room, a door opened and out came a young girl no older than fourteen. She was very thin, the paleness of her skin illuminating her bright blue eye, which were so like those of her two big brothers. Her white-blonde hair was so straight and long that it cascaded down her back like a waterfall. She ran into the middle of scene in the living room, crying, frustrated, scared.

"No, Ariana!" yelled Aberforth. "GET AWAY!" He tried pushing her with his arm, but she was stubborn. She halted where she was: right in the middle of Aberforth and Gellert.

"_Erhalten Sie weg, dummes Mädchen!_" Gellert yelled at Ariana, though no one understood what he said. He fired another Crutiatus Curse, this time at Ariana, sending her up into the air, screaming and crying louder than she had been doing before.

"Gellert! No, please! Don't hurt them!" Albus began to cry. He raised his wand, pointing it at Gellert's, trying to disarm him. "_Expelliarmus_!" He shouted.

Ron, Sirius, and Remus all screamed. Hermione jumped, her head still in Sirius's chest.

There was a loud crash. Albus had missed Gellert's wand arm by inches and the Expelliarmus curse had hit his sister instead. Ariana had gone flying backward, hard, into the opposite wall. The three boys stopped dueling instantly. Aberforth bolted towards his sister.

"Ariana!" he shouted, cradling his sister in his arms. The scene seemed oddly familiar to Sirius. Blood was pouring from the back of Ariana's head, soaking her beautiful hair. Her neck appeared to be broken.

Aberforth was crying over her, His face red and his eyes puffy. "Ariana, wake up, please!"

"She won't wake up," said Gellert. "She's dead."

Aberforth turned angrily on him. "YOU DID IT! YOU KILLED HER! YOU STUPID EVIL RAT!"

Gellert was frozen in shock.

"Gellert," Albus said emotionlessly and not looking at him. "Go…just go."

Without another word, Gellert turned and ran out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

Sirius and Hermione were both crying, wrapped in each other's arms, silent warm tears streaming down their cheeks. Ron and Remus stood, thunderstruck at the scene before them.

Albus lost control. He collapsed onto the wood floor, kicking and screaming as loud as he could, tears turning his face as red as blood. Her pulled his hair, ranting and raving. The four observers were reminded of a five-year-old child. One who was angry because his parents deprived him of a stuffed animal in a toy store.

"It's all my fault," he cried. "IT'S ALL MY FAULT. I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to!" He sobbed and cried, kicked and screamed. None of them could ever have imagined the Albus Dumbledore they knew act in this way.

Leaving it at that, the memory dissolved, sending the four back to the bedroom in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

**Author's Note: That's chapter seven. Hope you liked it.**

**Au revoir,**

**Amelie **


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **I hope you all enjoyed Chapter Seven. Here's Chapter Eight. Please review.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries—Chapter Eight

The four stared at each other in absolute shock. No one could even utter a sound after the terrifying event they had just witness. Albus Dumbledore using Dark Magic? The thought was such an impossibility. Not only that, but the idea of his being so reckless as to commit manslaughter on his mentally challenged sister was an idea so horrific that no one could invent something more awful.

Finally, Hermione broke the silence, her cheeks still damp and her large brown eyes still frightened. "I don't believe it," she sobbed quietly. "But, why would Dumbledore even _want _us to see that memory, as awful as it was? It didn't even have anything to do with Horcruxes…or even with Voldemort."

"Maybe he _didn't _want us to see it," Sirius spoke up. He dabbed his eyes with the sleeve of his robe and swept his long black hair off his shoulders. "You can't monitor every memory you put into a pensieve. It could have very well gone in there by accident."

Ron was so curious that he poured out every question on his mind in the spur of one moment. "What was all that about Dark Magic? Who was the German bloke? Did any of you guys know Dumbledore had a sister?"

"One question at a time, Ron," said Remus, crossing his arms. "About the Dark Magic: evidently Dumbledore _used _it, as sad as the fact is. His brother wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise."

"And all that about destroying Muggles?" asked Hermione. "That's not the Dumbledore we know. He loves Muggle-borns. He would never hurt them."

"Who do you guys think that German bloke was?" Ron asked again.

"Gellert Grindelwald," Remus and Sirius said at once.

"_What_?" Ron and Hermione asked, shocked. Clearly that was not the answer Ron had been expecting.

"It _had _to be Grindelwald." Remus assured them. "He is around the same age as Dumbledore, he is German, and he is extremely powerful. In fact, he was known to perform the Cruciatus curse on children back when he was in power. And to top it all off, he was blond in his youth and it's documented that he spent some of his teenage life in England with his great aunt, Bathilda Bagshot. But only after he was expelled from Durmstrang, of course."

"I don't believe it," repeated Hermione, wide-eyed. "I just _can't _believe it. Dumbledore involved in the Dark Arts? It's just not possible."

"What's going on up here?" Molly Weasley's plump figure appeared in the doorway. She had on one of her hand-knitted flowery aprons, which meant that she had been in the middle of cooking dinner. "Dumbledore just left without saying a word." She said, a bit offended. "He's been acting rather strange lately."

"Yeah," agreed Ron. "He's been acting _real _strange."

On September 1, as Ginny was busy getting ready to leave for the Hogwarts Express, Ron and Hermione were busy preparing for their journey, packing everything that they could possibly need. All the while, they struggled to block their thoughts of Dumbledore out of their minds, trying to focus instead on Horcruxes.

"Where could we find basilisk venom?" Ron asked, throwing at least ten of his mother-knitted sweaters into his already overstuffed trunk.

"_Honestly_, Ron," replied Hermione, annoyed. "Don't you _ever _use your brain? From a basilisk, of course. Where else would we get some, from an ice cream parlor?"

"Just asking," said Ron apologetically. "But, I mean, you can't really find basilisks anymore. They're so dangerous, and they're illegal to breed, aren't they? The only one I've ever heard of living in modern days is the one in the Chamber of Secrets and it's not even alive anymore. But not just that, we don't even know where to find the other two Horcruxes. We don't even know what they _are_."

"Well, one of them's obviously Voldemort," said Hermione, closing her trunk and sitting on top of it.

"Ron? Hermione?" Sirius was standing in the doorway. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Yeah, but where are we going?" Ron asked, putting a final pair of socks into his trunk. "We don't even know where to start looking for basilisk venom, and we need that before we can going looking for Horcruxes, just to be safe."

"Well," said Sirius. "Remus has come up with a clever idea to get venom."

"What?" asked Hermione. Then she gasped. "He's not suggesting that we…_create _our own basilisk, is he?"

Sirius's gray eyes widened and he let out a small chuckle. To see this was a bit startling for Ron and Hermione. This was the first true sign of happiness that they had seen on his face in weeks. "Oh, no, Hermione," he said. "That's far too dangerous. Moony's not nearly _that _foolish. I'll let him explain it to you when we're ready to leave. He'll explain better, it being his idea."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief.

Ron snickered. "Your face was hilarious."

"Have either of you ever heard of a man named Herpo the Foul?" asked Remus after the quartet had assembled in the foyer.

"Yes," said Hermione. "He's mentioned in _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. _He was a Dark wizard and Parselmouth in ancient Greece who created a basilisk that was said to live for nine hundred years."

"Really?" asked Ron. "That's awesome! Scary, but awesome."

"You would have already known that if you'd read the book like you were _supposed _to, Ronald." Hermione said in her teacher tone.

Ron stuck out his tongue.

"Anyway," said Remus, always the one to change the subject. "The legend has it that when the basilisk finally died, it was laid to rest in Herpo's tomb."

"Yeah, okay," said Ron, nodding his head. Then it hit him like a bludger. "You want us to go to Greece and break into the tomb and-and steal some venom?"

"Yes," replied Remus calmy, as though they were back in third year and Ron had just answered a question on Grindylows correctly.

"But that's illegal," said Hermione, always being sensible.

"That it is," replied Sirius in a philosophical tone. "But as honorary Marauders, Remus and I live for this kind of mischief. You've just never seen us in action."

Remus smiled in agreement.

"But," began Hermione, "won't the venom be dried out since the snake's been dead all of these years?"

"No," replied Remus, this time in _his _teacher tone. "You see, unlike regular snake venom, basilisk venom never dries out, even after the snake is dead. That's one of the reasons why it's so particularly dangerous."

Hermione nodded shakily in agreement.

"So, are you guys in?" asked Sirius.

"Yeah," said Ron instantly, very excited to actually partake in mischief with two of the original Marauders. He reached out his hand in order to form a pile.

Remus placed his hand on top of Ron's. Sirius did the same. But Hermione hesitated.

"Come on, Hermione," said Sirius. "You said it yourself. We can't just give up. Besides, Harry'll probably send curse after curse on you if don't come."

He laughed jokingly. This made Hermione feel better. She knew if _Sirius _could find laughter and happiness in all this, anyone could. "O-okay," she said in a small voice. She slowly placed her hand on top of Sirius's.

When it was time for Ginny to leave for the train, Hermione stopped to talk to her.

"We want you, Neville, and Luna to take over the D.A. for us," said Hermione.

"Really?" asked Ginny modestly. "I don't think we could—"

"Nonsense," said Ron. "After all that stuff you guys did in the Department of Mysteries while _we _were unconscious—or in my case—_insane_?"

"You'll do great," said Hermione, giving Ginny a hug of encouragement. "Besides, you won't be alone. There will be an Auror with you."

"An Auror? Who?" asked Ginny.

"Hi Ginny!" A pink haired head popped into view from behind Ron, smiling happily.

"Tonks," Hermione answered. "She'll be helping you with all the students."

"It'll be fun," said Tonks, giving Ginny a hug. "You'll see."

After Ginny had left, it was time for the quartet to leave for Greece. Remus and Ron mounted their broomsticks. Hermione looked as though she were about to have a nervous breakdown. Her face was so pale that her brown hair and eyes stood out more than they ever had before.

"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!" She whimpered. "Please no, Sirius."

"Let's go, Hermione," beckoned Sirius, putting on his helmet, "or I'll throw you on and fly at top speed. It'll be fine. Nothing can happen to you while I'm on here." He mounted his giant black motorcycle and extended his hand for Hermione to take.

Crying slightly, her face still as white as cotton, Hermione reached out one trembling hand to take Sirius's. Flying had always been her greatest fear. She climbed slowly onto the bike. Sirius helped her put on her helmet.

"Just relax and close your eyes," said Sirius soothingly. "I've got you." He put one arm safely around Hermione's waist, his other hand on the steering wheel, and started the engine.

The engine roared as smoke issued from the tailpipe. The bike rose into the air, Hermione still with her eyes tightly shut and whispering comforting words to herself. Ron and Remus raised their brooms into the air and followed close behind.

Ron started to laugh slightly, but Remus scowled at him and yelled through the wind.

"She wouldn't laugh at _you _if you had a giant spider in your pants."

**Author's Note: **Stay tuned for Chapter Nine. I hoped you like Chapter Eight. Please review.

Beaucoup d'amour à tout le monde,

Amélie


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: **I hope you all liked chapter eight. Here's chapter nine. Please remember to review.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries--Chapter Nine

When they arrived in Athens nine hours later, all four of them were exhausted and dirty. Ron had almost fallen asleep on his broom about five times, Hermione cried herself to sleep on the motorbike, Remus had the worst bags anyone had ever seen under his usually radiant blue eyes, and Sirius's hair was disheveled from his helmet and his eyes were droopy.

"Can we at least find an inn?" asked a yawning Ron, leaning on his broomstick.

"Yeah," said Remus, looking as tired as Ron. "There should be one nearby."

The whole street was crowded and full of people. Luckily, four had landed in the Wizarding part of Athens, so one really gave them a second look when they had come flying in from the sky. People were flying in all around them. There was a robe shop, a cauldron boutique, a Quidditch store, and an animal shelter full of magical creatures all on one block. People were chatting in outdoor benches, small children were screaming at their guardians (though none of the four could tell what they were saying, as none of them spoke Greek.)

They walked around the shops for a while before they came to a wooden cottage where everyone parked got off their broomsticks. There was a sign on the front of the door, but no one had any idea what it meant. They decided to go in to see if anyone spoke English.

"Excuse me?" asked Remus as he approached a desk. A little woman with short gray hair was sitting behind it. "Do you speak English?" Remus asked again.

The woman stared at him and said something in Greek. "I can't understand you," said Remus, a bit frustrated now. "Does anyone here speak English?"

"English? I speak English." An old man came out of a door behind the old woman. He was taller than she appeared to be and had darker hair. "My name is Konstantin Samir and this is my wife Emalia. We own this inn." He shook hands with Remus and Sirius.

"So this is an inn?" asked Remus.

"Of course," replied Mr. Samir. "Although, you all aren't Muggles are you?"

"Oh no," said Sirius. "We're wizards, all of us, from England and we need a place to stay for a few days."

Mr. Samir said something to his wife in Greek. She pulled out a notebook from her desk drawer and gave it to him. "Right now, we have two two-bedroom suites available," he said, after looking through the notebook. "They are three hundred galleons apiece for one night."

"Alright," said Sirius. "That's a pretty fair price. We'll take both rooms, please."

He turned to the other three. "How do we want to split up the rooms?"

"Well," said Hermione. "I feel much better staying in a room with an adult when I'm in in a foreign place, anyway."

"So, how about me and Ron together, and you and Hermione together?" Remus asked Sirius.

"That sounds like it'll work," said Sirius. The other two nodded in agreement.

The four made there way to their rooms, throwing their luggage that they had earlier transfigured into pebbles for lighter travel on the floor. Remus stayed awake for a little while longer to read a book he had purchased on Herpo the Foul. That is, read as much as he possibly could. He was constantly interrupted by Ron's obnoxious snoring in the room next to him. Hermione plopped herself onto her bed and fell asleep instantly, while Sirius stayed awake pondering the rest of the adventure. Soon, however, he fell asleep and dream strangely.

_He was walking alone in the middle of a forest. Suddenly, he saw someone walking through the trees ahead of him. He followed. The boy stopped and waved at him. He was handsome and tall with golden curls, a happy, smiling face, and brilliant blue eyes. On his head was a feathery crown with a jewel in the middle. The boy turned and began to run faster._

"_Wait! Stop!" Sirius cried, racing after the boy, who disappeared behind the trees._

"_You can find him," a familiar voice said from behind Sirius. "He's where his path led him."_

_He turned around. Another teenage boy was standing behind him. He had jet-black hair, still as messy as always. His bright green eyes shown happily behind his glasses. The scar on his head was missing._

"_Harry!" Sirius shouted._

"_Go. You'll find him there." Harry smiled and his form faded._

"HARRY!" shouted Sirius. He awoke, sweaty and hot. Unfortunately, by the next morning, he had forgotten the dream.

During breakfast, in the inn café the next morning, the four talked of their plans to get the venom.

"Does anyone even know where Herpo's tomb is?" asked Ron.

"Of course," said Remus. "People have tours of the graveyard where it is everyday. I read about it last night. The tomb is a vault, but no one can go inside of it. All they do is walk passed by. It's actually a lot more popular than I thought. Nearly three million people visit it each year."

"So, are you saying that we wait until after the tours are over and—" Hermione dropped her voice to a whisper, --" break into it?"

"Yes," said Remus. "The last tour ends at 9:00 pm. The sun will start to be going down then and there aren't a lot of people in that area, so it should be easy to get in."

"But there's got to be a catch," said Ron, sipping his pumpkin juice. "I mean, there's no way you can just _break _into some ancient Dark wizard's tomb. There has to be some spell or something protecting it to keep people away."

"Well, that's a risk we have to take," replied Remus. "But, it's that or nothing."

Later that night, the four of them walked the five miles to the graveyard where Herpo the Foul and about five hundred more ancient wizards lay. Many of the vaults were elaborately decorated with Greek letters and ancient symbols.

The tour guide leading the group of people was a middle-aged Greek woman with long dark hair and so much make-up that to Hermione she looked like a Barbie doll. The tour was spoken all in Greek, so the quartet just smiled and nodded with the rest of the tourists as if they understood what the woman was saying.

"How do we know which one is Herpo's?" asked Hermione. "We can't understand if she's showing it to us or not."

"We look and see which vault has a carving of a snake on it and break into it," said Ron, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Actually, he's right." Remus said, sounding a bit surprised himself. "In the book I read, it says there's a giant carving of a serpent on the front of the vault."

"Well, that's easy," said Ron, blushing with pride from his lucky guess.

"Maybe not," said Sirius. He peered out into the graveyard. "As far as I can see, there are at least three vaults with some sort of snake on them."

"Look for the tomb with the largest carving on it," said Remus. "If that's not it, then we'll just have to search all of them."

The tour seemed to go on for hours, when in reality, it was only about thirty minutes. The people in front of the four adventurers were constantly taking pictures and gasping in delight. All in all, the four of them were extremely annoyed. Finally, when the tour end, the four of them went in the opposite direction of the rest of the group, so that no one could notice that they stayed behind.

"What if someone comes?" asked Hermione worriedly. "We'll be in big trouble if they see us here."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," said Ron.

But there were ways people could still see them. The sun had not yet gone down and there were not enough trees to mask their appearance.

"We can use this," said Sirius. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of silvery cloth. It was Harry's Invisibility Cloak. "I knew we would need it."

He threw it over all of them and they walked slowly toward each of the vaults.

"What about that one?" Hermione pointed to a vault with a very large snake on the front. It had very wide eyes that seemed to stare at the four of them, watching them closely as they came toward the tomb.

"Let's try it," said Remus. Slowly and quietly, the four crept to the front of the vault.

Remus examined it. "Hmm. It looks like there's some sort of keyhole here. Look."

The other three stared at the doorway. Sure enough, there were two tiny holes in the stone.

"Maybe we can make a mold of the key somehow," suggested Hermione. "My parents watch this show where detectives copy keys from clay by sticking it in the keyhole and letting it dry. But we don't have anything to dry clay with. I don't think there's even enough wet clay around here that we'd be able to fit in the holes, there're so small."

"Excuse me," said Ron. "But are we magical or what?" He pointed to his wand.

"Oh, right," replied Hermione, blushing in embarrassment.

"All we have to do is transfigure something into a key that matches the lock," said Sirius. "But we have to find something that can fit into the keyholes first. Do you have a couple bobby pins on you, Hermione?"

"No, I don't," said Hermione, frustrated. "Those would've worked perfectly."

"What about a twig?" asked Ron. Slowly and careful not to step out from beneath the Cloak, he bent down and picked up a stick and broke it in half, his elbows shoving Hermione.

"That might work," said Remus. He took the twigs from Ron and carefully tried to place them in the holes. It worked. "They fit," he said. "Yes!" He pointed his wand at the twigs and said, "_Immutatio claviger_."

In place of the twigs there was now one brass key in the lock. Remus turned the key gently. There was a loud creak and the vault opened. Remus took his wand and looked inside. "_Lumos." _A light appeared at the end of his wand and showed many cobwebs on dusty stone walls. He took off the Cloak and stepped inside. Ron followed him, Hermione holding the heavy door open.

Out of nowhere, came loud voices, hollering and shouting in the distance. Bright lanterns were lighting the way to the graveyard.

Hermione, so surprised and on edge, let go off the heavy door, shutting Remus and Ron inside.

"NO!" she shouted. Sirius threw the Cloak around both of them, covering Hermione's mouth with his hand.

The men with the lanterns searched the graveyard quickly, just sparing a glance over it to ensure that no intruders were there. They barely missed the spot where Sirius and Hermione stood huddled in fear under the Cloak.

**Author's Note: **That's chapter nine. So, what's protecting the inside the vault from intruders? Will Ron and Remus make it out? Tune in next time (which will hopefully be next weekend. School starts back tomorrow, so I won't be able to update as often as I've been doing.) Please review.

Beaucoup d'amour à tout le monde,

Amélie


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: **Here's chapter ten! Enjoy and please review. Merci.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Ten

Ron screamed in terror as the vault door slammed behind him.

"Be quiet, Ron," ordered Remus. "Someone might hear you."

"Someone _needs _to hear us. We're stuck in here," Ron replied in a panic, kicking the door of the vault. He yelped in pain as his toe mashed in the stone.

"Remus! Ron!" Sirius' muffled voice came from outside the stone walls.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Hermione's voice, barely audible.

"LET US OUT! LET US OUT!" Ron shouted. "We're gonna suffocate!" He was as white as a ghost and shaking all over, sprawled out on the dirt floor, nursing his toe.

"What's in there?" came Sirius's distant voice.

Remus looked around, shining the light from his wand through out the tomb. There were cobwebs all over the walls, but no sign of human bones or a basilisk. He thought for a moment and looked down at the dirt ground.

"It's underneath," he said.

"What?" asked Ron.

"The coffin. It's buried underneath the dirt," said Remus. "We'll have to dig."

"With our _hands_?" asked Ron.

"Well, what would you prefer? Our wands?" asked Remus. "There's no spell for actual digging, just for covering objects up with dirt."

Ron grumbled. He heaved himself up off the dirt floor and limped over to where Remus was now kneeling. The two rolled up their sleeves and placed their hands in the coarse, dry dirt below them.

"What if they really _do _suffocate in there?" asked Hermione, her face white with worry. She and Sirius were still under the Cloak.

"They won't," assured Sirius. "Remus can hold his breath longer than anyone I know. Even if Ron were to use up all the air from screaming."

Remus tore through the dirt like a wolf tearing through a rabbit hole in search of a meal. Suddenly, he came across something hard. There was a large coffin-like box well underneath the dirt.

Ron helped him dig out more of the dirt to reveal a coffin larger and more elegant than anyone could ever imagine. It was covered in gold, diamonds, and sapphires, complete with a slithering serpent with ruby-red eyes.

Remus pointed his wand at the coffin, muttered a spell, and it opened. He and Ron pulled back the enormous heavy lid. They coughed and sneezed, their eyes burning from the dust that was now filling the air. When they looked down inside the coffin, they made a gruesome discovery.

Herpo's skull and bones were full of maggots and worms and weeds that had grown up through the coffin from the ground beneath it. Clasped between his skeletal, rotten hands were two basilisk fangs, the only part of the basilisk that seemed to be buried with him.

"Should we take them?" asked Ron, staring into the coffin, looking very afraid of the consequences.

Remus nodded. "That's what we came here to do." He took a deep breath and reached into the dusty coffin, breaking the fangs from Herpo's brittle grip.

But, as soon as he had done so, snakes appeared out of nowhere, surrounding both him and Ron.

"I _knew _there was a curse!" shouted Ron. He was ready to squirm, when a snake slithered slowly and dangerously around his feet.

"What's happening?" asked Sirius.

"There are snakes all over us!" WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Ron yelled, his face now as white as death.

"Sirius! Hermione! You have to stay there." Remus hollered. He, too, had snakes coiled around his feet. "We'll be okay. Ron, don't move. If you do that, it will provoke them into biting you."

Gently and still clutching the fangs tightly, Remus pointed his wand at the snake below him. "_Epera Evanesca!_" He did the same to the one around Ron's feet. They each crumbled to dust, but then reappeared and joined the dozens of other snakes around them, mouths open and slithering toward the two wizards.

"Ron! Yell '_Epera Evanesca_!'" shouted Remus.

Ron complied and crumbled the dangerous snakes into dust, buying the two wizards a quicker escape time.

"Try to move backward!" shouted Remus. "Sirius! Open the door!"

From outside the tomb, Sirius and Hermione threw off the cloak and yelled, "_bombarda_!" not caring whether anyone else heard the noise or not. The door came blasting apart. The two of them gasped in horror as they saw dozens of poisonous snakes surrounding both Ron and Remus.

"_Epera Evanesca_!" They shouted, allowing Ron and Remus time to come out of the tomb. The snakes followed them as they ran out, slithering across the graveyard as the four ran as fast as possible back to the inn.

They entered the room that Ron and Remus shared, ignoring curious glances from the many other guests in the inn. Ron and Remus were both extremely dirty and horror-struck, looking as though they were about to keel over and die.

"Are you guys okay?" panicked Hermione. "You didn't get bit, did you?"

"No," said Remus, breathing hard. He sat down on the old sofa and brushed the dust out of his hair. "But we came close. I've never seen so many snakes in one place before."

Ron burst into hysteria and sank into a nearby chair. "If anyone tells me 1996 isn't the worst year ever, I'm going to kill them!"

Ignoring Ron's comments as usual, Hermione asked, "Now that we have the venom, how do we destroy the Horcruxes, Professor Lupin?"

"We have to plunge the fang into the Horcrux," replied Remus, still shaken from his experience.

"I'm surprised you didn't know that already," said Ron.

Hermione growled. Even after a life-threatening experience, Ron still found ways to make her angry.

"Hermione," said Sirius who was now sitting in the chair next to Ron's. "Do you still have the locket?"

"Yes, one moment." Hermione ran out of the door and into the next room. When she returned, the golden locket was in her hand.

"Here," she handed it over to Remus, obviously trying to avoid having to perform the task herself.

Remus held his breath and held the fang in his right hand. "Right," he said slowly. Holding the locket out away from his body, Remus plunged the fang right in its middle.

There was a flash of white light, and the locket opened. A silvery shape appeared from it, much in the same way that Professor Trelawney's shape appeared from Dumbledore's pensieve. This shape, however, was not of Trelawney. It was of a thin boy with dark hair and glasses. Harry's shape.

But, this was not the Harry everyone in the room knew. This one had a Voldemort-like appearance to him: handsome, pale, and devilish, with gleaming red eyes as opposed to Harry's beautiful green ones. He looked much like the teenager everyone had seen conversing with Hepzibah Smith. His voice was not even his own, rather much more harsh and snake-like.

"Sirius Black," hissed this Voldemort-Harry. "You are the most despicable man alive! Leaving me to die, not giving me the love and respect I deserve. You are the most incompetent, the weakest man I have ever met! My death was ALL YOUR FAULT! You uncaring, selfish, egotistical man! You worthless coward! I HATE YOU! I hope you a horrible death—"

Tears were now streaming down Sirius's face as Voldemort-Harry continued to insult him. It was evident to everyone else that these insults were exactly what Sirius thought about himself.

"Don't listen to him, Sirius!" Hermione cautioned. "Harry loved you! He would have never blamed you for his death! You meant everything to him!"

In a fit of rage, Sirius wrenched the fang from Remus's hands and stabbed the locket over and over. Blood spattered from it and hit Sirius in the face. The image of Voldemort-Harry disappeared and the remains of the locket fell to the floor.

Sirius collapsed onto the floor, weeping, much like the young Albus Dumbledore.

"You did it, Sirius!" said Remus, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder to calm him. "You got rid of a Horcrux."

Ron, as always, was rather pessimistic. "But, now we have to do that to four more."

This made Sirius remember. He took a deep breath and wiped his eyes. "I know what the last Horcrux is."

"You do?" asked Hermione, sitting down next to him. "Are you sure?"

Sirius nodded. "I had this dream I was walking in a forest and this boy was running ahead of me with a crown on his head. He disappeared and then I saw Harry. He told me to follow the boy to the place 'where his path led him'."

"So," said Remus. "You think this crown is a Horcrux?"

"Are you absolutely certain it wasn't just a dream?" asked Hermione.

"Were _you _absolutely certain about the locket?" asked Ron sarcastically.

Sirius nodded to Hermione's question. "The boy I saw was Grindelwald."

"Grindelwald?" everyone repeated.

"Why would Grindelwald have Voldemort's Horcrux?" asked Hermione.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," said Remus. "We go to where his path led him."

"Where's _that_?" asked Ron. "The only place his path led him was jail."

"Exactly," said Remus.

Ron shook his head. "No. No way am I going to Nurmengard. No way."

Now it was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes. "You got trapped in a tomb with a whole bunch of venomous snakes, and you're worried about going to a heavily guarded prison?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Well, too bad," said Remus. "Off to Nurmengard."

Ron groaned.

**End Note: **That's chapter ten. I'll try to post chapter 11 next weekend. I've got SAT's in a couple of weeks, so I've got a lot of studying to do. Please review!

À Bientôt,

Amélie


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: **Here's Chapter 11. I hope everyone likes it. Please review. Merci mille fois.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Eleven

September 19, 1996 was probably the most unusual birthday Hermione had ever had. On any other birthday, she would be eating birthday cake, opening presents and cards, and probably playing a new game of Wizard Chess that Ron would probably give her.

But this birthday was different from anything she could ever imagine. On this birthday, she, a fellow student, a werewolf, and an ex-convict were all traveling to Germany to attempt to have a conversation with the second-most infamous Dark wizard of the century. A month ago, this had not been Hermione's idea of a birthday, let alone the birthday that would mark her a woman in the Wizarding world.

But, _she _wasn't the one complaining. As a matter of fact, as nerve-racking and as creepy as the adventure seemed to be, Hermione was enjoying it. The motorcycle ride to Germany did not seem nearly as intimidating as the ride to Greece had been; and all in all, the experience was very _unique. _As she started to think about it, she wondered how many witches and wizards had actually done _this _for their seventeenth birthdays. Now, she had something interesting to tell her grandchildren. That is, if she got the chance to have any.

It was Ron who spent the entire time on his broomstick complaining. Every second was a comment about how much trouble the four of them had gotten –and definitely still would-get into.

"What are we supposed to do?" asked Ron in his panicky voice, which everyone else was getting quite used to by now. By now, they had reached the German capitol of Berlin, a bustling city mingled with a variety of both Wizarding and Muggle folk, much like London. "Are we just supposed to walk into Nurmengard and be like, 'Hello, we'd like to speak to Gellert Grindelwald about a certain Horcrux of Lord Voldemort's,'? I mean, seriously, it's unbelievable. Besides, how many people actually speak English in Germany?"

"Many more so than in Greece," said Remus. "And we found someone _there_."

"Where is Nurmengard?" asked Hermione, glancing around at all the large shops and restaurants on the street.

"It's supposedly on the outskirts of Alsfeld." Said Remus. "Grindelwald had it built in a remote area so that no one could be suspicious about what was going on, and no one was for quite a long time."

"So," asked Ron, "why can't we just _fly _to Alsfeld?"

"Because we don't know where it is," said Remus. "It's such a small town. We'll have to take the train."

"It looks like there's a train station up ahead," said Sirius. "Although, I can't tell for sure. I don't know much German. _Je comprends mieux le français._"

There was indeed something that resembled a train station up ahead. It was a large building leading off of two large, cylindrical structures, possibly where trains were held. They could even hear the sound of metal scraping against steel, much like trains against tracks. There was a big German sign out front of it.

"Should we go and see?" asked Hermione. It was really the only chance they had.

Ron looked rather skeptical, as always, but the two men nodded. They all walked slowly over to the supposed train station.

"Excuse me?" asked Sirius. Now, it was his turn to communicate in a foreign country. "Do you speak English?"

"_Englisch? Ja_." The man at the ticket booth walked into the door behind him, bringing out another man.

"I speak English," said the man. He did not have a German accent when speaking, so either he was _very _good at learning a foreign language, or he was a native Englishman. "How can I help you?"

"We would like four train tickets to Alsfeld, please." Sirius said.

The man punched the keys on the computer in front of him. It was evident this was a Muggle train station, since computers were not used in the Wizarding world, and there were no other signs of magic. "Five hundred Deutsche marks, please."

"Deutsche marks?" Remus asked. He looked fearful for a moment, not having that kind of money, when he remembered. He turned around, took out his wand, and muttered, "_immutatio!"_

at several galleons in his hand. In an instant, they became smaller and bronze. He handed the new coins to Sirius, who handed them to the man behind the counter. On the other side of the counter, four orange tickets popped out.

"_Danke_," said Sirius, taking them from the slot.

The train ride was long and boring, with nothing out the window but the scenery, gradually changing from city to countryside. The four companions watched as cows grazed fenced-in pastures, horses roamed freely through fields, and both Wizarding and Muggle farmers plowed wheat and vegetables. Finally, after what seemed like twelve hours, the train stopped at an old, rundown, countryside station. Trash was littered all over the ground, with roaches and vermin scattered through it.

The four hopped out of the train and walked over to a large map on the opposite wall. At first, there was no sign of Nurmengard on the map, but suddenly it appeared. The words '_Nurmengard Gefängnis_' were written in large letters with a dot near the left side of the map. Clearly, only Wizarding folk were able to see it.

"It's only about three miles from here," said Remus. "We could easily walk."

Ron groaned for what seemed like the millionth time that week.

"Honestly, Ron." Said Hermione. "It's not _that _long of a walk, and we could all use the exercise."

The roads were long, barren, and curvy. The sun was shining in the clear blue sky, casting a warm ray on the four pedestrian adventurers. Finally, a bit hot and sweaty, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and Remus reached what had to be their destination. From what Sirius could tell, it was as large as Azkaban, although a much glossier black color, which made the fortress look like it were made of marble.

"Wow," muttered Ron, pale-faced and staring at the tip-top of the prison. "I'm leaving."

He turned to leave, as though he could actually go somewhere without the help of the others, when Sirius grabbed him forcibly by the collar of his shirt.

"THAT"S IT, RON!" Sirius was turning a fiery red color now. He was filled with so much anger and frustration that he reminded Remus of the night when he had killed Bellatrix Lestrange. "YOU ARE THE MOST SELFISH, THE BIGGEST COMPLAINER I HAVE MET! I SPENT TWELVE YEARS IN A PRISON WORSE THAN THIS! THERE AREN'T EVEN DEMENTORS HERE! IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THIS, YOU'RE THE BIGGEST COWARD IN THE WORLD!"

Ron was frozen in absolute shock. Hermione looked at her feet. Remus just stared. Sirius was sweating even more than he had been, and his breathing was rapid. "NOW, COME ON!"

He dragged Ron over to the iron gates, which were guarded by at least fifty burly German Aurors, and not to mention many a thousand magical spells.

"Uh, excuse me," Remus hesitated. How was he going to explain that the four of them were there to see Gellert Grindelwald? He didn't even know if the guards understood what he was saying. "Do any of you speak English?"

"I do," said one of the youngest of the guards. He was thinner than the rest of the guards and had dark brown hair and a goatee, and looked rather suspiciously at the four intruders.

"We're--we're here to see Gellert Grindelwald," Remus said, praying that the guard would somehow understand their need.

"_Grindelvald_?" The English-speaking guard turned to several of the guards next to him and began talking fast in German.

Then, he turned back to the four and nodded. "Yes, this way."

The large iron gates opened slowly, allowing the four an instance in. They were speechless. No way could they possibly just _walk _in to see Gellert Grindelwald without any sort of interrogation. Something was up. They gripped their wands tightly. Could these guards be some sorts of German Death Eaters?

The English-speaking guard and three others escorted the quartet inside the prison and down a long, narrow hallway, on either side of which were heavily guarded doors with large iron bars . There was a large metal door at the end of the hallway, into which the guards led the four. Inside, there were four wooden chairs in the middle of the room. The chairs were facing a glass wall, behind which was a fifth wooden chair and another door. Two of the non-English-speaking guards left the room.

"They have gone to get him," the English-speaking guard informed the four. By 'him,' the guard obviously meant Grindelwald. All four were a bit nervous, none of them having ever conversed with an actual Dark wizard leader before. They simply nodded to the guard in affirmation and waited.

About five minutes later, the door behind the glass opened, and out came an old man. He was extremely thin, skeletal, in fact, reminding Sirius much of himself when he had been in Azkaban. His long golden curls were gone, replaced by pure white wisps, looking much like the clouds that were currently streaking the sky outside. His face, which had once been handsome and smooth, was now hollow and covered in wrinkles. He no longer had the arrogant, rosy look to him, but instead was now haunted and pale. The only trace that remained of his sixteen-year-old self was his clear blue eyes, but even those were now sunken and ghostlike. His emaciated, wasted hands appeared to be chained behind his back with iron shackles. He carefully and silently sat down in the seat provided for him behind the glass. The two non-English-speaking guards walked in behind him.

"You have fifty minutes," said the English-speaking guard, and he and one of the non-English-speaking guards left the room, leaving the quartet alone with Grindelwald and the two other guards who were keeping watch on the other side of the glass where he was.

"Uh, Mr. Grindelwald?" Hermione had found her voice first. "We've come to—"

"The four of you have come because you need information concerning a task that you all must undertake, because the task's true undertaker is now deceased." Grindelwald finished the sentence for her. He still had the same German accent he had had as a teenager, but now his voice was deeper and highly hoarse.

The four stared in shock, their mouths open wide. It took a moment for this to register into each of their brains, especially Ron's.

"Yes," Hermione replied nervously, and very confused, in a small voice. How could Grindelwald have known? Was he a Seer?

But it was Sirius who caught on the fastest. "Dumbledore!" He said, more surprised than he had ever been before. "Dumbledore told you we were coming! That's why the guards let us in so lightly."

"But why?" asked Ron, angrily, as usual nowadays. "Why would he spend all this time telling you about us and knowing what the Horcruxes were, instead of going out and finding them himself? If he's dying and he's able to come out here and tell you we're coming, then why can't he just do this himself?"

"Don't you understand, Ron?" asked Remus. "The task was not appointed to Dumbledore. It was appointed to Harry, but since _he _can no longer do it, it is our job to finish it. It's our job to avenge Harry, not Dumbledore. What would _we_ possibly learn if Dumbledore did all this himself?"

"It's our turn now, Ron," said Sirius. "Dumbledore's done enough with Voldemort."

"And plus," interjected Hermione, "like Dumbledore said, we're the four people who were closest to Harry during his life time. How do you think Harry would feel if we, of all people, just sat around and did nothing?"

"He wouldn't be happy," replied Ron guiltily. He looked down at his feet, ashamed of his selfishness.

"Exactly," said Hermione, putting her arm around Ron.

Sirius turned back to Grindelwald. "We need to know about a crown."

"Ah, yes, I know something about a crown, a diadem," said Grindelwald quietly; his hollow blue eyes were mysterious and unblinking, much like a calm ocean, undisturbed by waves or marine life. " In 1899, after Albus and I had returned from Germany, we stole the diadem of Hogwarts founder Rowena Ravenclaw from inside Hogwarts itself."

"But how?" asked Remus incredulously. "You can't Apparate into Hogwarts."

"_Nein_," replied Grindelwald. "But there are other means of getting in. There is a system of secret passageways leading into Hogwarts from various villages and places."

Sirius and Remus exchanged surprised glances at this.

"Ah." Grindelwald looked curious, and smiled lightly. "So, you've heard of them. Albus and I used these passageways to sneak into Hogwarts to steal the diadem from behind a statue near the Ravenclaw common room. We knew it was valuable and suspected we could use it for something in the future, once we went out to change the world and make it the way it was supposed to be. However, our idea of changing the world together, as you must already know, was thwarted, and Albus and I went our separate ways. But, I kept the diadem."

The other four looked at each other in disbelief. The Albus Dumbledore whom they knew _loved _Hogwarts and always did everything in his power to keep it safe and its traditions alive. It was his home, his refuge. Stealing something so important to the school was _not _something any of them could ever imagine him doing.

Grindelwald waited until this information digested into the brains of the four in front of him before continuing. "I kept the diadem until 1945, when-as you know-I wound up here, thanks to Albus. When I went to jail, my property and everything of value to me was taken, including the diadem. I know the young Tom Riddle was the one to take it. Probably stealing it from the basement of my mansion before the rest of the house was put up for auction."

The other four looked confused. "Yes, I had the pleasure of meeting young Tom Riddle," Grindelwald said, affirming the thoughts of the four. "I met him after a speech in Munich, which, my you, he could not understand in the slightest. He didn't understand a single word of German, despicable boy. He came up to me and told me how much he loved my ideas. That he'd read all my books, the English translations of course. But, despite his disrespect of my language, I liked him and was proud that I could be such an influence a young man who lived so far away from my country. I invited him to my home, and he saw the diadem, encased behind a glass bookshelf. He expressed interest in it, but knew he couldn't steal it at the time, I being much more powerful than himself. But, after my downfall, I lost that power, and he managed to steal it. Afterward, he turned it into a Horcrux of his own."

The four nodded in understanding. Where might he have put it?" asked Remus.

"The safest place for him to put items of value," replied Grindelwald. "Where would you place an item of that much value, Mr. Lupin?"

"Somewhere that I knew no one could get it, except me." Replied Remus slowly.

"Like a safe, or a trunk, or—"

"Your Gringotts vault!" shouted Hermione.

**End Note: **That's Chapter 11. Is Hermione right? Is the Horcrux in Tom Riddle's vault or somewhere else? Where do you think? Send me your answer in your review. Oh, and by the way. Alsfeld _is _a real city or a town in Germany, but I'm not sure if it's rural or not. Thanks to US2UK6 for telling me what the currency for Germany was.

Merci beaucoup,

Amélie


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: **Here's chapter twelve. It's not very long, but I hope you like it. Please review. Merci.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Twelve 

The following day, the four headed back to England, which meant, back to Grimmauld Place. Unfortunately the following day was probably the worst time to leave, because, according to Britain's National Wizarding Weather Service, it was the stormiest day of the year so far. And it appeared to be correct. Icy cold rain drenched the four adventurers as they rode through the gray sky. Ron's broom was in fact so slippery that he almost fell off, which caused him to wrap his arms around his broom for the remainder of the trip. However, Sirius and Hermione had a much worst problem. The motorbike was composed of various metal components, making it vulnerable to lightening strikes.

Of course, this did everything but calm Hermione's nerves. She already had a phobia of flying, but throw in flying on a metal object in the middle of a thunderstorm, when it happened to be in freezing cold weather, and she was ready to have a heart attack and die. She whimpered and screamed as loud as she possibly could. Her tears were mixed with the freezing cold raindrops, and her hair was stuck to her face.

"Calm down, Hermione," Sirius shouted over the noise of the pounding rain and gusting wind. Obviously, as soon as he could utter anything of comfort, something bad would happen. There was a loud crash of thunder and lightening struck just inches away from the motorbike, which caused Sirius to dive the bike downward like a roller coaster and Hermione to give her loudest scream yet.

"Sirius!" Remus shouted from behind him. "This is too dangerous! We should stop!"

NO!" Sirius shouted back. Like Hermione's hair, his hair was sticking to his face and whipping around into his mouth as he turned to respond to Remus. "We're almost to London! We have to keep going!"

The storm was worsening (as if it hadn't gotten to its worst already). Large chunks of hail were now being thrown upon the quartet, numbing their fingers to the point of icicles. In a panic, Sirius looked down below him, praying that he would find some sign of London. Then, some ways off in the distance, he could see what had to be Big Ben, the Muggle clock tower in London.

"Down lower, we're almost there." At Sirius's direction, Ron and Remus turned their broomsticks downward, heading for the earth below. But, faster than the blink of an eye, lightening finally stuck the back of the motorbike, causing Sirius to lose control of the wheel. The bike plummeted downward very fast. Luckily, Sirius had good reflexes and was able to take control of the wheel again, steady the bike. Hermione was now hyperventilating in shock and screaming for her parents.

Finally, at least thirty minutes later, all the while struggling to dodge the rest of the lightening strikes, the quartet reached the dreary, unpleasant (although it didn't seem quite as dreary or unpleasant now to the four as it would have seemed any other day) townhouse that was Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

They all trudged to the door, soaked to the bone with water. When they opened the door, they found Molly Weasley standing on the other side, wand in hand, ready to face the intruders. She had, of course, not expected the four of them back any time soon. However, that did not make her anymore happy.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? YOU EXPECT ME TO BE CALM AND COLLECTED WHEN YOU JUST WALKED IN HERE LIKE THAT? YOU COULD HAVE WRITTEN ME A LETTER OR SOMETHING TO LET ME KNOW YOU'RE ALL RIGHT! I'VE BEEN WORRIED SICK!" Her face was as red as fire ant, but the look on her face just made Remus, Sirius, and Hermione stop dead. Ron, however, had dealt with his mother for sixteen years and knew by now how to deal with her.

"Well, for starters," Ron began cheerfully, "we went to Greece and broke into a Dark wizard's tomb, where Professor Lupin and I got trap inside with a bunch of snakes. Then, we went to Nurmengard to talk to Grindelwald. Then, today, we got stuck in a huge thunderstorm, where Sirius and Hermione almost got struck by lightening. And next, we have to go rob a Gringotts vault."

Molly's red face had now turned stark white. In an instant, she had fainted backward onto the hardwood floor.

"Well," Sirius sighed. " I guess this wouldn't be a good time to ask her how Buckbeak's doing, so I'll go check on him."

Meanwhile, about several hundred kilometers away, at Hogwarts, the DA (both the old members and the new members that Neville, Ginny, and Luna had recruited during the first few days of school) was starting its first lesson of the year.

"Hi, everyone," Ginny began. The entire group was gathered inside the Room of Requirements and waiting expectantly for training to begin. "For all you new members, my name is Ginevra Weasley, but you can call me 'Ginny,' and this is Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood." Luna waved dreamily to all the new members, while Neville nodded. "We're going to be your new trainers."

"With some help from a certified Auror," said Neville. "Please welcome Nymphadora Tonks."

Tonks stepped out from behind the three lead students and waved happily. "Hi, everybody." Her hair was now a shade of lavender and she wore a black leather jacket and a Weird Sisters t-shirt. "You guys can call me Tonks. Now, I understand you guys are going to do some serious training, so I've decided to make it fun."

Ginny and Neville looked at her strangely (Luna just continued to smile). What could she possibly be planning? Tonks pulled out a black rectangular box out of thin air.

"We're going to listen to music while we train! I hope you guys like the Weird Sisters. They're my favorite band."

The other students cheered, including the older ones. This was going to be an interesting year.

**End Note: **That's chapter twelve. Stay tuned for chapter thirteen. The quartet will be going to Gringotts, and Tonks teaches the DA some new training techniques.

Beaucoup d'amour à tout le monde,

Amélie


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: **Here's chapter thirteen. Enjoy and please remember to review. Merci beaucoup.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Thirteen

It took several days for the quartet to catch their breath and figure out the right way to get into Voldemort's old vault. After all, there was no way that they could just walk into Gringotts and simply _ask _to see Tom Riddle's vault. Even though very few people knew who Tom Riddle was, asking to see someone else's vault besides one's own was against the rules. Only an idiot would actually do that.

These were Hermione's thoughts as she lolled about on the living room couch, still recovering from her terrible flying experience. It was certainly the last time she would _ever _fly in the rain. Now, she had been considering all the possibilities of breaking into a vault, remembering back in second year when she, Ron, and Harry had used polyjuice potions to become Crabbe and Goyle to enter the Slytherin Common Room. But, she knew that there was no way that they could obtain anything from Voldemort to use in the potion. They didn't even know where he was. Then, she had an idea.

"What about Harry's Invisibility Cloak? We used it in Greece to get into the tomb. Could we maybe use it to get into Gringotts?" she asked.

"I highly doubt it," replied Remus. He was perched in an armchair next to Hermione, looking paler and more drawn than usual. "Back at the tomb, there was barely anyone around to notice us. In Gringotts, the entire building is guarded by spells and enchantments, and not to mention, some very intelligent goblins."

"Besides, we don't know where the vault is," agreed Sirius, who was sitting in the loveseat next to the couch. He had his elbow on one arm of the chair and had his face in his hand. "Even if we could use the Cloak, we would be wondering around for days trying to find which vault was Riddle's. There are over a million vaults in Gringotts."

He sighed and stared at the ugly black carpet underneath his feet. The entire room was silent. Nothing could be heard except the birds chirping outside and the sound of Molly Weasley fussing over Ron. Finally, Sirius's head came up slowly and he broke the silence.

"We could Imperius them."

"What?" asked Hermione. She sat up straight on the couch and stared at him in disbelief. "We can't Imperius goblins—or anyone for that matter—it's illegal."

"But, breaking into a thousand-year-old tomb isn't, Hermione?" asked Sirius. "Besides, I've already used _one _of the Unforgivable Curses. Another won't hurt."

"If it's the only way to get in, then we'll have to do it." Remus said. "Otherwise, the world will fall to pieces."

"Yeah, okay. You're right. I'll do it." She smiled in agreement. "But, Ron's definitely coming."

"Of course he is," nodded Remus. "We just have to Stun Molly first."

Molly was still extremely frustrated over everything that the quartet had been through, and, as ironic as it was, she was taking most of her frustration out on Ron. Not Remus or Sirius, the two adults, but Ron, the youngest of them all. She'd been yelling at him for the past four days about how irresponsible _he _was being and how she would never let him out of her sight again.

"You're going back to school come Monday," she kept saying. "You're not doing anything dangerous."

"Listening to this conversation is dangerous," Ron responded to his mother dully that afternoon. "We're doing this for a reason, not so we can get ourselves killed. But, if you want me to go back to school, fine. But, when You-Know-Who wins, _that's_ when you can talk about me not getting into any danger."

Later that night, Remus took the liberty of Stunning Molly in an effort to leave the house.

He laid her on the sofa in the living room while Ron put a blanket over her.

"I'm sorry we had to do this, Mum." Said Ron. "But, at least you're comfortable. The spell should wear off by the time Dad gets home from work. He'll take care of you then. I love you." He kissed his mother good-bye on the cheek, watching her eyes swerve back and forth angrily. "We'll see you later, hopefully."

In a few minutes, after much Apparating and Flooing, the quartet had found themselves in front of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. It was a tall white building with large columns and a goblin on either side of the entrance.

"Alright," whispered Sirius. "First, we go inside and Imperius the first goblin we see. Otherwise, if we wait, someone might get suspicious."

"What about those guys?" asked Ron, pointing to the guards.

"Ron, don't point. It's rude…and suspicious," snapped Hermione.

"They're guards," said Remus. "They need to stay out here and protect the bank—"

"From people like us who are trying to steal things," Hermione finished for him.

Remus looked a bit guilty at this thought. "Yes…from people like us."

They walked inside the bank calmly, so as to not give the guards any ideas of their intentions. The inside of the bank was highly decorated with carvings on the walls, chandeliers, and strange ornaments. Anyone not on a serious mission could get lost in its magnificence.

"Excuse me," Remus asked innocently to the first goblin the quartet saw. Luckily, there weren't many people at the bank this time of night, so they had a better chance of getting away with their plan. "Could you help us find Tom Riddle's vault?" he whispered these last few words just in case the few people here knew who Tom Riddle was.

In an instant, the goblin's ugly, stern face changed into a rather emotionless one. Remus was excellent at performing spells nonverbally. "Yes, right this way," the goblin replied hollowly. He led them to the front desk where he said to the head goblin, " I need the key to vault 510." The head goblin seemed to be busy and didn't recognize the other goblin's vacant expression as he handed him the little golden key.

The presence of stalactites and stalagmites throughout the tunnel made Sirius shiver as the cart rattled on the tracks to vault 510. The combination of ice and the wind that the cart was making as it moved made everything so cold. Sirius hadn't been down in Gringotts in years, so he was not used to these types of sensations.

"Vault 510," the goblin finally said as the cart jerked to a stop. Sirius took out his wand and Stunned the goblin immediately, just to be safe. Ron opened up the goblin's pocket and took out the little golden key.

"What happens if there's something evil behind there?" asked Ron. He looked up at the large stone vault and his face paled.

"We'll have to get through it, obviously," said Sirius. "There's nothing else we can do. We have to face our fears."

"That's part of an adventure," said Hermione. "You're not trying to bale out now, Ron. Are you?"

"No. I'm just nervous," Ron replied sheepishly.

"That's okay, Ron." Remus nodded. "We're all nervous. We don't know what's going to happen. Now, enough talk. We have to get this done. Give me the key, Ron."

Shakily and hesitantly, Ron handed Remus the little golden key. Remus gently placed it into the lock, and in an instant, the vault opened.

The inside the vault was nothing but box upon box, crate upon crate. No gold, no silver, nothing seemingly of value. But, the quartet knew better.

"The diadem's inside one of those boxes," said Hermione affirmatively.

"Thanks again, Captain Obvious." Ron rolled his eyes.

"We'll just have to look through all of them until we find it," said Sirius.

"But there is most _definitely _a catch here," declared Ron. "The moment we step inside something bad's going to happen."

"We'll deal with it, Ron." Sirius took a step forward. "We should go in one at a time in case something does happen. I'll go first."

He stepped inside the vault, wand at the ready. Nothing seemed to be amiss. "_Bombarda_!" He pointed his wand at one of the crates and it exploded. There was nothing inside. But, in an instant, thorns began to appear every which way, much like the snakes in the tomb. The other three had no intention of going in one at a time now. They rushed in to join Sirius. They used Cutting Spells and Severing Charms, but the weeds magically reappeared before their eyes. The thorns ripped their clothes, tore their arms, slashed their faces, and stuck to their skin. But they didn't care. They had to open the right box, find the Horcrux. Hermione screamed in pain as a thorn stuck itself into her left cheek. She ripped it out, and blood poured from her wound like a fountain. Remus had fallen onto the thorns, making them stick to his stomach and chest, and had to yank them out. Sirius's hands were bleeding profusely as he grabbed a handful of thorns to get to a crate that was underneath it. But, every time a crate was opened and there was no diadem inside, the thorns would increase, as would the pain, blood, and agony.

Ron's entire left arm was stuck with thorns as he battled his way to a section of crates near the left side of vault. "_Bombarda_!" he shouted. The crate exploded. Nothing, except more thorns. He turned to another crate, ripping through the thorns that covered the top of it. "_Bombarda_!" At that moment, he felt more encouraged to fight in the war than he ever had before, because, at that moment, he found himself staring at a feathery, ornate object.

"I FOUND IT!" He screamed in absolute delight as he reached for it. "I FOUND IT! IT'S HERE!" He tore himself out of the thorns' grasps, his robes tearing to the point that his bleeding legs were visible. The thorns were blocking the entrance to the outside of the vault now. Yelling every possible Severing and Cutting Charm imaginable, everyone tried to make way out of the vault and back to the cart. Outside, everyone could see how horrible everyone else looked. They were all badly wounded and in need of serious medical attention.

"We need to go to a hospital now," ordered Remus, about to faint from loss of blood. Sirius supported him, while Ron did the same for Hermione. Sirius took hold of Ron and Apparated to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

After having to explain to the Healer in charge that they had been out hiking in the woods, each of them were taken into Intensive Care where they could be given stitches and healing potions to clean their wounds. While Remus and Hermione were taken into the room across the hall (the rooms could only hold at maximum two people at once), Ron and Sirius sat in beds with their legs and arms bandaged completely in gauzes.

"Now, I know Mum's going to kill me when she finds out I'm in the hospital," Ron groaned.

"Soon she'll understand why we did this," replied Sirius. "It'll work out." Then, his expression changed. "Where's the diadem?"

"I transfigured it into a knut," Ron whispered. "It's in my pocket." He sighed. "I can't believe we have to find one more of these things."

The entire DA again found themselves in the Room of Requirements. Tonks was busy talking to Neville, Luna, and Ginny, while everyone else talked amongst themselves about what was going to happen in their training.

Finally, Tonks turned around and smiled at everyone. "Are you guys ready to train?"

"Yes!" Everyone replied, looking up at Tonks expectantly.

She put her hands on her hips. "Good," she said cheerfully. "First off, how many of you like to get stuff? Like presents."

Everyone raised his or her hand.

"Okay. Good," replied Tonks, nodding. "Because the concept of trying to get what you want is very important in my training. I'll show you why."

Tonks went around to each person individually. "Now, Brittany," she began to a Hufflepuff girl with brown hair, "let's say you're in a shoe shop, okay? And you see these really, really cute fifty percent off sandals with gold straps. You're getting in line to pay for them, but then—" Tonks' eyes widened. "Then, Millicent Bulstrode comes and pushes you out of the way and steals the shoes from you. How would you feel?"

"Angry," replied Brittany, looking angry already.

"Good. Now, what would you do to Millicent to get your shoes back?"

"Hex her!" shouted Brittany. "Hex her until she gave me her shoes back!"

"Exactly," Tonks smiled. "That's the kind of attitude you need to have to be an Auror. You have to feel the emotion and _mean _it before you can cast a proper curse that you can control. Otherwise, the curse comes out weak and doesn't have the right effect."

Tonks flicked her wand and a pair of beautiful gold sandals appeared. "Now, what would you do again?" she asked. Tonks moved the sandals around Brittany's head, teasing her. "What would you do, Brittany, if you _really _wanted these sandals?"

"FIGHT FOR THEM! _EXPELLIARMUS!" _Brittany shouted. The shoes flew into the air, and Brittany caught them.

Tonks shouted happily and gave Brittany a hug. "See? You did it! You had emotion! You were determined, because you _wanted _those shoes! Use that sort of affective memory in the midst of battle and you'd be in good shape. Although, we'll have to come up with some curses other than _Expelliarmus._"

**End Note: **Did you like this chapter? I hope so. I used thorns because I thought using fire in the vault would be copying the book too much. PLEASE give me some feedback on how I did. I'll try to update again next weekend.

Merci et À bientôt,

Amélie


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: **Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I had this huge research paper to do for my English class. But it's done now, so I'll have time to update regularly (hopefully). So, without further adieu, I give you Chapter Fourteen!

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Fourteen

It was not until December that the quartet fully recovered from their injuries. Remus, by far, had suffered the most. He spent three weeks in Intensive Care to repair the wounds that the thorns had made to his intestinal track. He even had to resort to a sort of magical surgery to fix it. In the end, his stomach was covered in stitches that would have to remain there for about three more months. But, the worst of his condition was the fact that there was a full moon during this time. He had had to suffer both his agonizing stomach pains and his even more agonizing werewolf transformations at the same time.

The rest were fortunate that they had only suffered external injuries. Sirius and Ron now had deep scars on their legs, arms, and hands that were would probably be permanent. Hermione, however, had scars that covered her entire face. She spent hours in front of the mirror trying to mask all of them with foundation, powder, and other forms of make-up, but in the end the scars were still showing. She felt the ugliest that she had ever felt in her life. When she was in Muggle primary school, the other children often teased her about her large teeth. She had cried then, but now she was screaming.

"You'll get used to them after a while," Remus kept assuring her. He himself had many scars on his face from his werewolf transformations. "At least you don't get new ones every month like I do."

However, no amount of physical pain could compare with the emotional and psychological trauma that was being received from Molly Weasley. She had yelled at Ron before, but now she turned her attention to Remus and Sirius having now realized that they were the masterminds behind all of these "adventures". Finally, after her constant ranting, raving, screaming, rebuking, and yelling, Remus and Sirius had no choice but to explain to Molly about the Horcruxes and what the exact purpose of their "adventures" was.

That explanation sent her even more over the edge.

"It is _not _a child's place to vanquish someone like You-Know-Who," she told Remus and Sirius one cold afternoon at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. "Ron and Hermione should be in school where they belong. They should not have the weight of the world on their shoulders."

"Harry would have," Sirius retorted, sitting up straight on the sofa in the living room. "_He _would have had to carry the weight of the world on _his _shoulders without any choice."

"Exactly," Remus agreed. "Harry was supposed to be the one to bare all of this burden. What difference is it for Ron and Hermione to do it?"

"And we would have helped him anyway," said Hermione. She and Ron appeared in the living room doorway, having heard the entire conversation. "We wouldn't have let him stand alone, just like we're not going to let Sirius and Professor Lupin stand alone, either."

"Yeah, Mum," Ron nodded his head, looking pleased with himself. This was obviously the first time that he had ever really stood up to his mother. "I may be stubborn, and I may have complained a little—"

"—A lot—" Remus, Sirius, and Hermione all chorused.

Ron's face turned a bit red. "Okay, a lot. I may have complained _a lot_, and I probably will in the future. But after all this, I've realized that we have to do this for a cause. For Harry."

Molly's expression appeared to soften, but she made no move to reply.

"And just think, Mum," Ron continued, seeing his mother's expression. "When this is all over, we'll come back heroes."

"Don't jinx it, Ron." Hermione looked at him pointedly. Of course, no one knew if they would survive. Nothing was guaranteed, but there was always room for hope.

Ron had seen her point. "If we die, Mum, at least we'll die with honors. And if we go to jail, then we can at least appeal to a jury."

Sirius made funny noise at this last statement. He knew from experience that proper trials were hard to get.

"And they're _not _children, Molly," Remus piped up. "As we've said before, they've seen so much already. It's time for them to take on adult responsibilities."

Everyone nodded. Molly let out a heavy sigh. "I know you're growing up. I just don't want to see anyone else I love get hurt."

"This is war, Molly," Sirius said. "People die in wars. It's a risk we all have to take."

Molly's expression was now solemn. Her face was turning (if possible) redder than it ever had been. She knew she had to let them go. It was now that she realized that the two teens in front of her _had _lost their sense of childhood. They were free to make their own decisions and live their own lives. She could not control them. She could not protect them anymore. They had to do it themselves. "Alright. You've made your point. But please be as careful as you can." That was all she had in her power to say.

Without another word, she walked out of the room, holding back the tears that so that no one could see her true sadness.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, now that that's over, who wants to be the one to stab the Horcrux this time?" he asked as though nothing had happened at all. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the bronze Knut.

&&&&

Destroying the diadem was not nearly as hard as the locket. This time, there was no devilish Riddle-Harry image spewing out insults. In fact, there was nothing at all, except for blood, a broken jewel, and crushed feathers. But, destroying it felt good all the same. It was one more step toward revenge and peace for the Wizarding World

Hermione picked up the broken crown, wiped off the blood, and placed it on her head as best as it would fit. (Now that it was partially broken, it was much harder to where.) .

"It still looks nice," she said, looking into the mirror on living room wall. "It makes the scars much less noticeable."

"Yeah," said Ron, leaning back in his chair, "who could look at someone's scars when they've got a giant parrot on their head?"

Hermione scowled at Ron and placed the crown on the coffee table in the middle of the room. "What about the Cup?" she asked. "We still need to find it."

"More newsfrom Captain Obvious," said Ron in a bored, sarcastic voice.

"Shut up, Ron!"

"Stop being so _obvious_! We know we need to find the Cup. You don't need to _say _that we need to find it."

"It'll probably be the hardest to find," Remus chimed in, forever to be the one to break up Hermione and Ron's arguments. He was sitting on the sofa, not yet comfortable with standing for long periods of time. "We've had some clue with the other two Horcruxes, but we don't have any leads on the Cup."

"It could be in the Riddle House," suggested Ron. "You know, that place where Y--_Voldemort's_ father lived."

"Well, if that's the case, then we'll never get it," said Hermione. "Voldemort's probably there, and we can't take him down just yet. We need to be ready, have a plan of action."

"What if a Death Eater has it?" asked Ron. "Like the Malfoys. We'll never find it, then. We don't even know who all the Death Eaters are."

"It couldn't be the Malfoys," Hermione shook her head. "They had Riddle's diary, remember?"

Ron and Hermione vividly remembered the day when Lucius Malfoy had slipped the Diary into little Ginny's cauldron that day four years ago in Flourish and Blott's.

"Voldemort wouldn't have entrusted _two_ Horcruxes to them," Hermione continued, sitting down on the loveseat. "That'd make it too easy to find the second one."

"Who else could it be, then?" asked Ron. "The Lestranges?"

"Maybe," said Remus. "Bellatrix was a very close follower of Voldemort's. He could have given the Cup to her Rudolphus."

"What about Snape?" asked Hermione.

"Probably not," said Ron. "Dumbledore would've destroyed it already if Snape had it."

Sirius furrowed his brow in concentration. It had to be a Death Eater, but he didn't know who. Someone who was obviously close to Voldemort,someonewho had skill and immense powers. There was no way Voldemort would have given the Cup to someone who was weak, someone who couldn't handle it, someone with no talent, someone who….

Sirius's heart began to beat five times as fast, his palms began to sweat and his eyes widened in shocked. It seemed as though the whole world had stopped spinning and all he could see was that one moment. The moment all those years ago when he had seen the Cup! He remembered himself opening a cupboard, reaching into it and picking up a teacup, and in the very back of the cupboard, to where his eyes had glanced ever so briefly, was sittinga little golden cup with a badger on the side!

"PETER!" He jumped up from his chair with such force that he knocked it over backwards. "PETER HAD THE CUP!" He took deep breaths and began to sweat all over.

"I can't believe it didn't see it before! It was so obvious! Right in front of me…"

"Wait," Remus stood up slowly, trying to keep from hurting himself. "What do you mean 'Peter had the Cup'? How do you know?"

Sirius took another deep breath to calm himself. He replied slowly, "The night that Peter and I switched Secret-Keepers, I went over to his apartment, and he offered me some tea. But, he forgot the cups, so he asked me to go get some. I went into the cupboard and in the very back WAS THE STUPID CUP!"

"Are you sure, Sirius?" asked Remus.

"Yes, I'm sure! I saw it!" Sirius looked as though he were about to cry. "How could I have not remembered it sooner?"

"But, why would Voldemort give _him _the Cup?" asked Hermione. "He's so stupid."

That's the point," said Sirius. "Voldemort gave the Cup to Peter because no one would ever suspect him of having it _because_ he's so stupid!"

"Yeah, that does make sense," said Ron. "He is pretty stupid. It would've been a good bluff."

"But that still doesn't explain how we can get the Cup, though," said Hermione. "I mean, we don't know what happened to his stuff after he 'died'. Someone could've taken his stuff."

"Well, chances are his mother got everything," said Remus. "In the Wizarding World, when someone dies, (or in Peter's case, fakes their death) their property, provided that it isn't given to anyone in a will, is taken back to the home of their birth."

"The same thing happens when they go to prison," said Sirius. "When I was sent to Azkaban, everything I owned at that time was sent back here."

"So, does that mean that we have to go to his mother's house and ask her where the Cup is?" asked Ron incredulously. "I don't think she'd let us have it."

"Well, we don't have to ask her, Ron." Sirius had an odd glint. "We just have to find a way to get her out of the house so that we can take it."

"Oh, boy."

**End Note: **I hope you liked chapter fourteen stay tuned for chapter fifteen where Hermione plays the role of a spoiled brat and Tonks has a surprise for little Brittany.

Also, please remember to review and give me some feedback. Tell me why you liked this chapter (or if you didn't like it, tell me why), give me some suggestions on plot, character development, etc. Do you like the plot so far? Do you like the characters? Is there anything or anyone that you would like to see more of? What do you think will happen in future chapters? Those are the kinds of things that I want to hear about in reviews. Otherwise, I don't know how to improve.

Merci mille fois,

Amélie


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note: Here's Chapter Fifteen

**Author's Note: **Here's Chapter Fifteen. To be honest, I think it's the best one yet. Special thanks to Prettyinpurple14 for her ideas on more "prose". I hope this is what she wants!

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Fifteen

Over the course of the next couple of days, the quartet planned out how exactly they would get hold of Hufflepuff's Cup. It was decided that Remus and Hermione would distract Mrs. Pettigrew by telling her that they were a father-and-daughter couple that had recently moved into the area and needed a tour around the town. Of course, Mrs. Pettigrew was bound to recognize Remus, so he would just explain to her that she was the only person in the town with whom he was acquainted and therefore would be the only person with whom he felt comfortable showing him and his "daughter" around this new town. Meanwhile, while they were gone, Sirius and Ron would carefully break into Mrs. Pettigrew's home to search for the Cup. Remus and Sirius were to use the two two-way mirrors that Sirius had to contact each other in case anything happened.

The day they left for Mrs. Pettigrew's house was probably the coldest day of the year. Snow was falling at a very rapid rate, and so much of it was falling that it was sticking to everyone's hair as they walked. Their toes and fingers were so cold that they felt as though they would break off. Sirius could feel the frost sticking to his cheeks, the wind was so harsh that it made him want to just fall over and die.

But he knew he had to go on. If the Cup was in Mrs. Pettigrew's possession, he had to find it and destroy it. He had to get his revenge. He could care less if he was stealing something from an old woman. After all, her son had stolen from him….

Throughout his seven years at Hogwarts, it had never once crossed Sirius's mind that Peter Pettigrew was capable of anything like murder. He had always been very clumsy and unlucky. Extremely unlucky. He wet the bed every night and constantly tripped over his own feet. While James and Sirius had received the highest grades in school, Peter had received the worst grades of anyone in their year. In seventh year, while James was finally able to take Lily out on a date and had soon wound up proposing to her, Peter had ruined his first (and only) chance at love by vomiting on his girlfriend. Life had not been in Peter's favor. Perhaps that was why he resorted to becoming a Death Eater.

No one would probably ever know for certain why Peter chose to follow Voldemort, but Sirius had always guessed that it was because Voldemort had given Peter the promise of a better life. After all of those years of people looking down on him, Peter would finally be able to show everyone how important he was. As Voldemort's right-hand man, he would have a higher rank than any other Death Eater once Voldemort had taken over the Wizarding world. Peter might have been so desperate for respect that he resorted to becoming maliciously evil in order to finally get it.

Mrs. Pettigrew might also have been one of the factors in Peter's change of life. Even though his mother had loved him, Peter had always told Sirius, Remus, and James that he could never do enough to make her happy. Being the klutz and the failure that he was, Peter had always disappointed his mother in everything that he did. She was the number one priority in his life and, as he had always said, to disappoint her was the biggest failure of all. So, perhaps Peter had become a Death Eater in order to impress his mother, to show her that he was not a failure and that he _could _amount to something.

Mrs. Pettigrew had been a widow since Peter was seven. According to Peter, his father had gone to bed one night feeling as though he had a headache, and the next morning Mrs. Pettigrew awoke to find her husband dead. As it turns out, Mr. Pettigrew had suffered from an inflammation of the brain, which resulted in a hemorrhage. So, Peter had not grown up with a strong male influence to guide him down the right path. In Sirius's mind, there was a possibility that Peter had seen Voldemort as somewhat of a father figure and had the mind to obey and look up to him as he would his own father.

These were only speculations in Sirius's mind as he walked down the snow-covered street, burying his head in his hood to protect himself from the strong gusts of wind. Whatever the reason for Peter's drastic change in life, Sirius knew that only one thing was certain: one cannot be judged by what one does as a child. Sirius knew that this was the truth from what he had seen over the past few months. As Albus Dumbledore, a Dark Arts fanatic, a Muggle-hating teenager, had changed into a loving, caring old man, ready to help anyone and everyone in need, the clumsy, foolish teenage Peter Pettigrew whom no one would have ever suspected to be capable of any atrocity, had changed into one of the most evil men imaginable.

"This is it." Remus's voice brought Sirius out of his thoughts.

The four of them were standing—shivering—in front of a two story wooden house painted dark blue. The roof, like the lawn and everything else around the house, was covered in a thick blanket of crisp, white snow. Sirius remembered this house well. The four Marauders had spent countless days each summer here. In fourth year, Sirius had set off ten of Filibuster's Fireworks in the front lawn. Then in sixth year, James had found a giant tarantula living underneath the front porch and shoved it down Peter's shirt. Peter screamed so loudly that the next-door neighbor (a Muggle) had called the police.

"Okay," Remus turned around to face everyone else. "Sirius, you and Ron go hide around the side of the house. Hermione and I will knock on the door and see if she's in."

"Good idea," Sirius nodded, brushing the snow out of his hair with his hand. "Let's go, Ron."

Ron gave a slight whimper as he followed Sirius around the corner of the house.

"We should've brought the Invisibility Cloak," Ron muttered, his teeth chattering like squeaking mice.

Change in POV

Remus and Hermione walked slowly up the steps to the front door. Neither one of them was keen on moving at all, it was so cold, and the wind was blowing so hard and so fast. Finally (it felt like it took ten minutes for them to walk up to the porch), Remus rapped quickly and loudly on the door.

He and Hermione looked at each other. The same concerned he felt was expressed on her face. If Mrs. Pettigrew no longer lived here, then they were out of luck….

The wind blew harder, causing the snow to fly towards the faces of the two people standing on the porch. Remus's hands felt like icicles, even though he was wearing gloves. He wished the door would open soon.

As soon as that thought came to mind, the door opened, causing a blissful feeling of warmth to emit from the house. Remus wanted nothing more than to step inside and sit by the fire, to warm his freezing hands and chapped face.

But a new feeling of warmth soon swept through his body when he recognized the woman standing in front of him. It was Mrs. Pettigrew! She was round and plump like her son, with watery blue eyes and short graying blonde hair. With her hand-knitted wool dress and fuzzy pink slippers, she vaguely reminded Remus of Molly Weasley, although she had quite a bit more wrinkles on her face than Molly had.

"Hello Mrs. Pettigrew," Remus began hesistantly. "Do you remember me?"

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the older woman's face split into a large smile.

"Remus Lupin!" she said excitedly. "I haven't seen you in years. How are you?"

"I'm doing wonderful, Mrs. Pettigrew," he replied hurriedly, wanting both to get out of the cold and to leave so that Sirius and Ron could search the house. His face then split into a smile identical to Mrs. Pettigrew's. He put his arm around Hermione in a father-like manner and said to Mrs. Pettigrew:

"This is my daughter, Hermione. We've just moved into the area, and we were wondering if maybe you would like to show us around, you know, since you're the only person in this town I know."

"Please?" Hermione smiled through chattering teeth. "I really, really, really, really, really want to go the Wizarding Mall here. I hear they have the cutest shoes."

Mrs. Pettigrew looked perplexed. "Now? You want to go _now_? In this weather?" She stepped out into the freezing air and wrapped her dress tightly around her.

"Yes." Remus replied eagerly, his hands now feeling as though they were completely frostbitten. "Right now. Don't worry. Once we start moving, it won't seem nearly as cold." What a good lie that was.

Suddenly, the wind began to pick up once more. He could only imagine what it was like for Ron and Sirius standing over beside the house, where it was even colder.

"Please, ma'am?" asked Hermione innocently, now visibly shivering.

Mrs. Pettigrew sighed. "Oh, alright. Let me get dressed." She closed the door slowly.

"Well, that was rather rude," said Hermione, more snowflakes gathering in her bushy hair. "She could've at least invited us _inside_."

A few moments later, Mrs. Pettigrew emerged again from her house wearing thick dragonhide boots and a heavy wool cloak.

"Alright," she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and turned to Remus. "What would you like me to show you first?"

Change in POV

Sirius stuck his head out from behind the house as he heard Mrs. Pettigrew's voice and the crunching of snow. He could see Remus, Hermione, and Mrs. Pettigrew heading off in the opposite direction of the house.

"They're leaving. Now we can go in." He said.

Beside him, Ron looked like an icicle. His lips were blue, ice and snow were covering almost very inch of his body, his hair looked frozen, and he was stone still.

"I c-can't m-move…." Ron's lips were barely moving. Sirius half wondered if whether or not they were frozen together. "My toes are f-frozen…."

"That's not all. Your brain's probably frozen, too," Sirius replied gravely. "Come on, we'll be inside in a moment."

He took hold of Ron's hand and dragged his frozen body out from behind the side of the house. Walking to the front porch felt like the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life. Combined with the severely strong blowing of the freezing wind, Ron could barely move and seemed to be pulling a muscle in Sirius's arm with every step Sirius took. Finally, they reached the front door.

Sirius took his wand from his pocket and muttered, "_Alohomora_!"

A golden light shined through the keyhole and the door unlocked. As Sirius opened the door, a magnificent feeling of warmth flooded through his body.

The inside of the house was large, but not very spacious. The living room was packed with bulking pieces of furniture: a large, squishy white armchair patterned with pink roses, a matching couch, a cherry wood armoire filled with what looked like a porcelain doll collection and a wide coffee table littered with what looked like Wizarding knitting magazines. There was also a large stony fireplace that was still smoking from the fire that Mrs. Pettigrew had just put out. The carpet was fuzzy and pearly pink. All in all, from what Sirius could remember, the house still looked the same from when Peter was a teenager.

Ron had apparently thawed somewhat after several minutes of being inside the house because he sprinted onto the couch and attempted to warm himself with the smoke of the fireplace.

"Ron, we can't dilly-dally." Sirius said. "We have to find the Cup."

"You look first," Ron demanded lazily. "I'm still de-thawing."

Sirius sighed in frustration and moved about the living room, which was very hard to do because the furniture was clustered together. Sirius couldn't imagine how Mrs. Pettigrew moved around the room at her size. The armoire where the porcelain doll collection was held was probably most likely where the Cup would be if it were kept in the living room, so Sirius wasted no time in stumbling straight to it.

The collection was all in all magnificent and creative. There were dolls from China, Japan, Indian, Ireland, and from somewhere that could possibly have been Iceland or Scandinavia. _How did she get all these dolls?_ Sirius wondered. Certainly she didn't have the time to travel all over the place. Or maybe she did, being a retired woman.

There were certainly no cups of any kind in the armoire. With all those dolls, nothing else could possibly fit, or if it did, it would definitely clash with the atmosphere of the rest of the armoire. So, Sirius decided to check the kitchen. That would be the _most _likely place in the house for a cup to be.

The kitchen was much less crowded than the living room. The cherry oak table and chairs were quite small, and the sink was cluttered with dirty dishes that seemed to be washing themselves with soap and water. Sirius went around the entire room, opening every drawer and every cabinet and cupboard. Of course, there were cups, some very elegant and _expensive _cups, but no cups that looked remotely like Hufflepuff's.

Next, he checked all the upper rooms, again opening every drawer and overturning every piece of furniture just to make sure, but not leaving each room before putting everything back the way it was. But there was nothing. No little golden cup with a little badger on either side. In fact, there weren't any cups at all.

_It must be in the attic or the basement. _Sirius walked down the creaky stairs and back into the living room, where Ron was now sleeping—and drooling—on the couch. Sirius shook his shoulders gently.

"Ron, wake up! You have to help me look now."

Ron gave a moan and rolled over, dragging his drool with him.

"Come on!" Sirius grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him up straight.

"You have to help me look. I'll go check the attic and you go check the basement."

Ron's blue eyes widened in shock, and his face went so pale that his red hair looked like it was ten shades brighter.

"The basement! Sirius, do you know what's in the basement?" Ron looked like he was about to have a panic attack and started breathing rapidly.

"Old boxes and antiques that nobody wants anymore."

"No…." Ron looked jittery now. "_Spiders. _There are_ spiders _in thebasement."

"And in the attic." Sirius replied smoothly. Spiders were certainly the last thing on his mind. He'd seen literally thousands of them in Azkaban and even had to eat a few to keep from starving in there. No, they weren't a problem for him.

But, for Ron, it was a totally different story.

"I'm not going anywhere near any place with spiders." Ron stated defiantly, although the jitters were still there.

"Ron, I can't believe you spent thirty minutes in a tomb filled with poisonous snakes and you're afraid of spiders."

"Well, spiders are hairy and creepy and tickly and…."

"Come on." Sirius grabbed him by the arm and led him toward the basement door.

"You go down there and look through every box unless you find something."

The town was positively beautiful with all of its Christmas lights and candles in the windows of all the shops. The snow made it look like those little model replicas of Christmas towns that Remus's grandfather always set up in his house during the holidays.

Hermione seemed to be mesmerized by the town, too, although not for its looks. When she had said she wanted to go visit the Wizarding mall, at first Remus thought she was just acting. Now, however, it looked like she really _did _want to go and buy all the shoes.

She had already bought six pairs and was ready to buy more. The three of them stopped in front of one of the smaller shops in the Wizarding part of the city. It was painted a dark purple color and had all kinds of odd-looking jewelry being displayed in the window.

"Let's go in here," Hermione pleaded, fumbling with all of her shopping bags. "They have earrings!"

"Uh, honey," Mrs. Pettigrew cut in nervously. "Don't you think you've bought enough? It's almost dark. Maybe we should be leaving—"

"No, please, ma'am," Hermione whined, looking up at Mrs. Pettigrew with puppy dog eyes. "I have to buy some earrings to match my pretty shoes!"

Remus wasn't exactly sure if Hermione was acting this way because she wanted to keep Mrs. Pettigrew away from her house or because she really wanted earrings. Now, she turned to Remus and looked up at him.

"Daddy…I need some earrings. If I don't get them, my life will be ruined…." She appeared to be crying, but Remus couldn't be sure if she really was or not.

"Alright, _darling_, you can get some earrings," Remus replied in the best fatherly manner he could muster. He knew they needed to keep Mrs. Pettigrew out as long as possible in order for Ron and Sirius to search. Besides, it was freezing, and the shop looked to be very warm inside.

The inside of the shop was just as Remus suspected it would be: full of jewelry, fuzzy furniture, and sparkling candles, probably the most effeminate place Remus had ever seen. As soon as she stepped inside, Hermione took Mrs. Pettigrew over to the earring stand. Then, Remus had the idea in mind to contact Sirius and see how he and Ron were coming with their search.

He walked over to the bracelet rack (no one seemed to be wanting bracelets today) and pulled out the two-way mirror from inside his cloak.

"Sirius." He spoke softly so that no one could hear him.

It took a few moments before Sirius's face came into view.

"What is it, Remus?" Sirius asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Well, if you count Hermione buying everything in sight as being something wrong, then yes. This is a whole different sight of her. I've never seen a girl buy so much, not even my mother, and she spent a thousand pounds on dresses."

Remus would never forget that day when his Muggle mother brought home thirty dresses complete with the largest bill on clothes he had ever seen. His father had gone ballistic.

"Anyway," Remus remembered why he had wanted to talk to Sirius. "Have you found anything yet?"

"Not yet," replied Sirius. "There are at least a hundred boxes in this attic. There's no telling when I'll find it, if it's even up here. It might be in the basement. Ron's checking down there, hopefully."

Suddenly, there was a faint crash coming from somewhere, and Remus doubted that it was in the shop.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I think I know." Sirius looked both angry and frustrated. "I'd better go. If I find anything, I'll let you know."

"RON!" Sirius shouted, running down the stairs to the basement door. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

He was surprised at how much he sounded like Molly. Ron appeared at the bottom of the stairs, as white as a ghost and looking completely shocked. He was holding something that looked like the broken statue of a cherib.

"I-I-I think I broke this." Ron's voice was very small and squeaky, much like Peter's had been whenever he did something wrong.

Sirius ran down the stairs. "Give it here. We can put it in a box upstairs."

"But then she'll know we were here," replied Ron shakily, his face going even whiter than it had been.

"No, she won't." Sirius took the pieces of the statue from Ron. "Now, keep looking and _don't break anything else_."

Sirius returned to the attic and put the broken angel in a box that he had already looked through. The attack was extremely dusty and full of spider webs and what looked to be birds' nests. Insulation was coming out of the walls and causing Sirius to itch when he pulled each box away from the wall and having to touch it. By now he had gone through nearly sixty of the boxes and had found nothing. He looked around the room and sighed, beginning to wonder if the Cup wasn't in the basement….

Then, Sirius felt his eyes open as wide as saucers and his heart try to leap like a frog out of his chest. In the very back corner of the attic, in possibly the dustiest area, were about two-dozen boxes labeled "Peter" on the sides.

The floor creaked madly as Sirius ran across the room. He ripped open each dusty box, coughing wildly and wiping his eyes as the dust came flying in his face. These boxes were all full of Peter's belongings that had been in his apartment during the time of his "death". There were shirts, shoes, pictures, books (which was extremely odd considering Peter had never read a book in his life), and finally china.

The china boxes were the boxes farthest back to the wall, and being the most fragile, had the most padding around them. Each individual piece of china was wrapped in old editions from _The Daily Prophet_ (one article was so old that it was from 1707).

After what felt like hours of unwrapping useless (although very beautiful, but useless to his search) cups and saucers, Sirius finally found what his was looking for. After opening up the second to last of the two-dozen boxes, Sirius reached inside and began to unwrap the most heavily wrapped piece of china. Three layers of newspaper later, he began to see the golden rim, the tiny handles, and the painted badger all take shape.

The sixth Horcrux could now be destroyed.

**End Note: **I firmly believe that this is the best chapter yet. Unfortunately, I won't be able to continue for a while because I need to get going with my other story "La Vie Comme Un Infirme". And I'm also sorry that I didn't get any DA stuff in this chapter. That might be in the next chapter. What would you guys like to see in the DA? Please tell me what you like about this chapter, too. If it's a good chapter, tell me why. If it's bad, tell me why. PLEASE!!

Merci beaucoup,

Amélie


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Note: I'm back

**Author's Note: **I'm back!! I wanted to get going on my other story "La Vie Comme Un Infirme" and then get back to this one. But for Chapter Fifteen I only got TWO REVIEWS!! What happened?  Come on, people!! Two reviews! I know that more than two people read that chapter! PLEASE give me some feedback, and there are other people who put this story on their Story Alert or Favorite Story list and don't leave a review!! Come on, if you put this story on an Alert, that obviously means you like it! Then, why not tell me _what_ you like about it? PLEASE!!

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Sixteen

It was December 18, 1996 and snow was falling all around Hogwarts, making it look like Mount Everest. The inside of the school was elaborately decorated with wreaths and candkes and Christmas trees. The ghosts even went around during dinner and sang carols.

It was in fact the last day of school before the Christmas holidays. The Hogwarts Express would be coming tomorrow morning to pick up all the children. Tonks gave a sigh as she looked at all of the DA members with satisfaction. They had all progressed marvelously during the passed four months. Each one of them had mastered defensive spells and reaction times far better (not to mention faster) than Tonks herself had when she had been in Auror training. They had even gone on to many forms of advanced magic, like Patronus casting. That was something Tonks did not do until her second year of training.

_Maybe it has something to do with being younger, _she thought to herself. _Maybe younger children catch on faster. Yeah. _She smiled to herself. _That must be it._

Ginny, Luna, and Neville were doing an excellent job as well. They had become superb leaders. The fear that Tonks had once been accustomed to seeing on their faces (Well, on Ginny's and Neville's faces, anyway. Luna's face never had much of any expression, but she was a good leader all the same.) had been replaced with determination. Neville's transformation was the most surprising. Neville reminded Tonks very much of herself: clumsy, forgetful, and a bit out of place from where the rest of the crowd stood. She had in all honesty not expected him to be as brave as he had become. Of course, he was still clumsy and forgetful at times, but now there was barely any sign of a coward in him.

Harry's death had made sure of that….

The thought of Harry made Tonks' eyes fog up with tears and caused a pang of sadness to jab at her stomach. She often relived that horrible scene in her mind…Harry lying Sirius's arms in a pool of blood…she herself trying to revive him, but to no avail… the dead, haunting look on his pale, bloodless face….

It all made her want to beat the ground in rage and stab Voldemort until he was nothing but sheds and bits and pieces! Not curse him. No, that wouldn't be painful enough. The use of the Killing Curse was a quick death, one with no pain or agony. Stabbing would be much more appropriate for a creature like Voldemort. He deserved to _feel _all the pain that _he _had caused. He deserved to wallow in his own blood on the floor, painfully waiting for death.

"Miss Tonks? Are you okay, ma'am?" A small voice interrupted Tonks's train of thought. But Tonks was glad for that. Anymore of those thoughts and she might have gone crazy.

Looking down, she saw that it was little Brittany (wearing her little golden sandals along with wool socks. Those sandals were the only shoes she ever wore since Tonks gave them to her.) addressing her. Although only a first year and thereby one of the youngest members of the DA, Brittany was one of the most productive and dedicated members of the DA. She had produced a wonderful and very powerful sparrow Patronus.

But as Tonks spent more and more time with the little girl and got to know her better, she came to realize all the hardships in Brittany's life. She was in fact an orphan and taking residence in an orphanage for Wizarding children. She said she didn't like it much there and that the people who ran the orphanage weren't the nicest of people. She said that she had to sleep on an iron bed with old springs in a small room with thirty other girls and that the food was terrible. Those were some of the reasons why Brittany loved Hogwarts so much. Everyone was so nice and she had no problem with getting enough to eat or sleeping. It was her real home, she had told Tonks, not the orphanage.

"I'm fine, Brittany." Tonks gave the little girl a smile. "I've just had a rough couple of months."

Then, she remembered. For the past couple of weeks, Tonks had been shopping (using the miniscule amount of free time that she had) for Christmas presents to give to all the students, when she finally found the right one for each of them. She couldn't believe that she had almost forgotten! If Brittany had not addressed her, then she definitely would have left the presents under the Christmas tree that they had placed in the Room of Requirements. They were actually hidden very well, so that no one could see them in plain sight unless they did some hardcore looking. Tonks had wanted them to be hidden so that no one would know about them until she handed them out. But, she didn't dream that she herself would forget about them.

"Brittany, guess what?" she asked.

"What, ma'am?" Brittany looked puzzled.

"I've got a Christmas present for you!" 

"A Christmas present?" Brittany's blue eyes widened in delight and amazement. "A _real _Christmas present?"

This made Tonks feel a little taken aback. What did she mean "real" Christmas present? What kinds of presents did she get back at the orphanage?

"Well…yes," replied Tonks slowly. "This is a real Christmas present. Here."

Tonks turned back to all the other students as she walked with Brittany over to the Christmas tree.

"Come on, guys! I've got presents!"

"Presents?!" All the students, including Ginny, Neville, and Luna shouted.

"Yep. One for everyone because I love you all so much, and you're so dedicated to this cause!" Tonks bent down and stuck her hands underneath the scratchy branches of the tree to get the presents. She had buried them deeper than she had meant to.

She got Brittany's out first. It was a little golden locket, heart-shaped, that matched her sandals perfectly.

Brittany ran up to Tonks and gave her a bone-crushing hug. Tonks would never have guessed from looking at Brittany's tiny stature that she had such strength.

"Thank you, Miss Tonks! I've never had a locket before." Brittany immediately took it out of the container and tried to put it on. "I love it."

"I'm glad you like it, Brittany. You know you can open it and store pictures in it?"

"Really? Cool! I'll find some nice ones of here at school. That'll look nice. Anybody got a camera so I can take pictures?" She asked everyone in the entire room until finally someone had one. She began snapping pictures like crazy.

Tonks let out another sigh as she watched all the children opening their presents with glee and excitement. _This is definitely a cool crowd, _she thought. _They'll do wonders for the war._

&

Sirius paced back and forth in the living room, waiting for Remus to come back with one or both of the basilisk fangs.

_He better not have lost them_, Sirius hoped.

Helga Hufflepuff's Cup was sitting innocently in the middle of the coffee table at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Sirius hated to look at it. It was like it was staring—mocking—all of them with its little badger and tiny handles, totally innocent on the outside, but totally evil on the inside.

_Never judge a book by its cover, _Sirius thought to himself.

Hermione, wearing her new purple dangling earrings and one of her six pairs of shoes (also purple), was leaning over the coffee table, staring back at the Cup.

"It amazes me how these artifacts can stay in such good shape after so many centuries. Oh, I wish we didn't have to destroy them…."

Sirius had to agree with her there. Who _would _want to destroy something so priceless as something that belonged to one of the Four Founders, the greatest witches and wizards of their time? The whole idea was terribly sad and disappointing. But, they had to remember, how much more terribly sad and disappointing would it be if Voldemort took over the world? No, there was no arguing or guilt in what they had to do.

"Yeah." Ron, who was sitting in an armchair, agreed also. "We could have made so much money off of them."

Hermione scowled over at him.

"I found them!" Remus came walking into the living room carrying the two large fangs in his hands.

"Great!" Sirius stopped pacing. "Now we can—"

Just then, Molly Weasley came running into the living room with complete horror on her face. She was as white as chalk and breathing heavily, more distraught than any of them had ever seen her.

"Mum!" Ron leaped up from the armchair. "What's wrong?"

Molly stuttered and was almost in tears. She held out her shaking hands and handed Sirius the copy of _The Daily Prophet_ newspaper she was holding. There on the front page, there were two boldfaced headlines.

The first read:

DEATH EATER ATTACK IN PORTSMOUTH

By Charles Sanderson, _Daily Prophet_ Correspondent

Early this morning, at approximately one o'clock, strong and violent uses of magic were detected at 132 Gaineswood Drive in Pourtsmouth, England. Aurors were dispatched into the cold, snowy morning and arrived to meet a gruesome discovery. The two occupants of the house, Melanie and David Granger, both Muggles, were found beaten and cursed to death on the living room floor.

"There was blood everywhere," one Auror who was dispatched to the scene told _The Prophet. _"The floor was completely covered. It was hard to tell if they the victims were beaten to death or met the Killing Curse."

At first, this attack appeared to be another random Muggle killing; however, further research indicates that the victims had one daughter, Hermione, who is currently enrolled as a sixth year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but has not been in attendance this year. It also came to point that Miss Granger was a close friend to the late Harry Potter, who died this past June. Whether there is a connection between her parents' murders and her relationship to Potter, authorities cannot be certain.

Sirius looked up from the paper in absolute shock, lost for words. Hermione lost all control and began to cry hysterically, falling onto her knees and beating the floor with her fist, her shoes falling off her feet as she kicked the ground in both anger and sadness.

Everyone did his or her best to console her. Molly tried to wrap an arm around her to calm her down while the rest tried to reassure her.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione. But, it'll be okay." Ron said, patting Hermione's back. "We'll get revenge."

"Shh. It'll be alright. It's what happens in wars, dear." Molly said, holding Hermione close and rocking her back and forth. "It's been a tough time for all of us. We've lost Harry, we've lost countless others, but we'll prevail. We have to move forward."

Tears were streaming down Hermione's face, her dark mascara staining her cheeks. She was sobbing uncontrollably in Molly's embrace. Suddenly, her expression changed and one of absolute rage came across her face. She jumped up from her fetal position on the floor and grabbed one of the basilisk fangs that Remus was still holding.

Without the slightest hint of hesitation, Hermione plunged the fang into Hufflepuff's Cup. Blood spurted forth and hit Hermione in the face and then extended to her bushy brown hair and new earrings. Soon, the coffee table was covered in nothing but a giant pool of blood and the Cup was bent and broken, more so than any other Horcrux had been, but Hermione wasn't finished.

She threw the Cup into the fireplace and shouted with all her might, "_Lacarnem Inflamarae!_"

Within an instant, the Cup went up in flames. Hermione again sunk to the floor in anguish and began to lose control. Everyone else in the room began to sob as well. Sirius understood Hermione's pain completely, and watching her in this state made him want revenge even more.

He looked down at his feet and realized that he still held the newspaper in his hands. The second bold headline came into view, and this did not brighten his state of mind at all:

**GRINDELWALD ESCAPES PRISON**

**End Note: **Hopefully, that's a good cliffhanger I think I did a pretty good job with this chapter. Please give me some feedback! Stay tuned for Chapter Seventeen.

À Bientôt,

Amélie


	17. Chapter 17

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, guys

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the long wait, guys. School was really running me down into the ground the last couple of weeks. But, now it's SUMMER!! So, hopefully, I'll be able to update sooner. Enjoy Chapter 17, and remember to give me some big, juicy reviews. Thanks.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Seventeen

Sirius' mind was spinning in shock and confusion. He had no idea what to make of what the headlines said. Hermione's parents had just been pronounced dead, which was bad enough, but this…this was just too much.

_Grindelwald escaping prison? _Of course, Sirius could believe that Grindelwald was capable of such a feat. After all, if _he _could do it with such little effort, then Grindelwald with his brilliant mind (and the simple fact that he had been the one to design the prison) could certainly do it. What confused Sirius was exactly _why _Grindelwald felt the need to break out of prison. Was he trying to help them? From what he had said during the quartet's conversation with him, Grindelwald was not particularly fond of the young Tom Riddle. In fact, looking back on it, Sirius began to get the impression that Grindelwald was even _jealous _of Riddle. Could he be trying to gain back his old glory and power? Or perhaps prison life was too much for him and he just had to break free?

There were so many possibilities. Sirius just hoped and prayed that it was the first one that came into Sirius's mind. They could have really used another brain like Grindelwald's on their side. Yes, they had Dumbledore, but how much better would it be for them to have two geniuses working against Voldemort?

So many thoughts were clouding Sirius's head as he looked around the room. It was oddly dark, as though the sadness from what had just happened had come flooding out of the newspaper and into the room. Sirius could hear the sound of light raindrops hitting the roof and windows of the house, all the while adding more depression to the atmosphere. In Sirius's opinion, no weather was worse than rain on top of snow.

Molly gently took Hermione by the hand and led her out of the room, presumably to calm her down and make her take a bath to rid herself of all the blood that she had gotten on herself from the Horcrux, which was now lying on the table in two pieces.

Remus and Ron were sitting on the sofa, quiet, not knowing what to say about what had just happened. It had been the same with Harry's death. No one had wanted to talk about it for fear of upsetting everyone else….

But they had to know about Grindelwald. Sirius couldn't withhold that information from them. Besides, it was probably better for the subject to be changed.

Not knowing how else to state it, Sirius said point-blank, "Grindelwald's escaped from prison."

"WHAT?" Two voices yelled at once. Remus and Ron bounded from their positions on the sofa. Ron snatched the newspaper from Sirius's hands in disbelief and read the article aloud.

The headline covering the story was, ironically, rather short, and did not help with any of the questions that were nagging at Sirius's brain.

"At approximately three o'clock this morning (Germany's time, corresponding to four o'clock in Britain), German Aurors reported to the German Ministry of Magic that the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald was reported missing from his fifty-one year residence as an inmate in Nurmengard Prison (which he himself had constructed in 1925), located in the rural town of Alsfeld. The German Minister of Magic Gervase von Rathenow ordered a complete lockdown of Wizarding Germany's transportation units and commanded the installment of anti-Apparition fields around the country.

'But Germany is not the only country that should be on the look-out for Grindelwald,' he says. 'All countries should be on guard and take all precautions necessary to remain safe while he is running about in case he was able to escape the country. He is one of the most dangerous and wicked men ever to walk this earth.'

Rathenow has proposed an international meeting with the Wizarding leaders of countries such as Great Britain, France, the United States, and Russia to discuss more precautions and strategies to recapture Grindelwald. _The Prophet _will continue to follow the story."

&

"_Gutentag,_ Albus." A placid, rather cheery voice greeted Albus Dumbledore as he walked into his private sitting room.

It was quite a shock, in all sincerity, for Dumbledore to see his onetime best friend turned enemy casually seated in front of him in one of his red plush armchairs, a wand in his hand and an all-too familiar smile on his face. Dumbledore had never expected Grindelwald to break out of prison, despite his intangible genius. Ever since he had been sentenced to a life behind bars, the German authorities had tightened the wards around Nurmengard, hoping to make it impossible for him to break lose. After all, the prison was _his _design. The Germans couldn't possibly put him in prison without changing something. But, as the entire world could now see, their preventions did very little to keep Grindelwald in bounds

"Hello, Gellert," Dumbledore replied calmly. Of course, any other human being would run screaming at the sight of Grindelwald, but Dumbledore, having known Grindelwald better than probably anyone else in the world, had nothing to fear. At least, not anymore….

Grindelwald twirled the wand between his fingertips and spoke up when he noticed his old friend eyeing the wand suspiciously.

"I took this from a man in southwest France." Grindelwald spoke as though he just snatched wands from people on a regular basis. "He's still alive, but probably in of a trip to the hospital if someone hasn't taken him there already."

Grindelwald looked the same as he had two months ago when Dumbledore had seen him last, although the robes he was wearing were now much different. Instead of being tattered and wool, they were now red and sleek, much like silk. He had stolen those from someone, too, no doubt.

"Why are you here?" Dumbledore finally inquired of his old friend serenely.

"I want to help you win this war, Albus." Grindelwald's manner lost its cheerfulness as he rose from the armchair and stood across from his vanquisher. "Since you are dying, I figured you could use some help."

Fifty years ago, Grindelwald would have never considered helping Dumbledore with anything like this. After that fateful day Dumbledore had defeated him, Grindelwald spat in Dumbledore's face and shrieked how much he wished him dead.

"Riddle is just as much my enemy as he is yours," Grindelwald continued, before giving Dumbledore a chance to reply. "I want to burn him into the ground and show the whole world what a fool he is."

There was no stopping him, Dunbledore knew. Once Gellert Grindelwald made up his mind, it was made. "Persuasion" was not in his vocabulary.

"True. He is a fool, and I know he fears you as much as he does me. What do you propose to do?" Dumbledore smiled.

**End Note: **I'm so sorry for the short chapter.I'm not very happy with it. It was very hard to write and took me forever, and it was extremely hard to get Dumbledore and Grindelwald in character. Did I do okay? Please be nice in your reviews. Please no chewing me out. Oh, and please give me some suggestions for what you would like to see in future chapters. Thanks.

Au Revoir,

Amélie


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: OK, people

**Author's Note: **OK, people. I am getting very frustrated by the lack of responses from all of you. PLEASE GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK!! EVERYONE who reads this story MUST review!!

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Eighteen

As anyone would expect, Christmas at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place was not the same as it had been the year before. Of course, there were lots of people: Fred and George decided to stay the week, and Tonks and her parents came by for Christmas dinner. But, the atmosphere was not the same as it was the year prior. But, what was a Christmas without Harry in their lives? And with Hermione now an orphan, what was Christmas without parents?

Yet, there was still gift giving and talk of what had gone on in the lives of everyone at the table. Tonks and Ginny were rather proud of the way the DA had turned out this year and told everyone about how all the students were taking on a rather good handle with the advanced forms of magic they had been practicing.

"They'll all be fabulous Aurors one of these days," Tonks happily assured the other occupants of the table.

This made Sirius feel much better. It gave him a good sense of hope. If these children were strong and well trained, they might do the war a great deal of good. But, it was scary all the same. Allowing the children to fight in the war put them in even more jeopardy than they were already in. Although, if Ron and Hermione could get themselves in as much trouble as they had and get themselves out they way they had been doing, the other children were bound to be capable of doing the same.

Fred and George tried to bring happiness to the table by telling everyone about their new invention called Spinning Bubble Gum.

"You chew it," Fred explained, "and you start spinning around like a pinwheel."

After dinner, everyone went into the living room to listen to music from the Wizarding Wireless Network, specifically the Weird Sisters' Christmas Special, and as it turned out, Fred and George had tried to pull a Christmas prank on their mother by putting Unwashable Paint (another one of their own inventions) all over the furniture earlier that day. So, when everyone came to sit that night, all the furniture had turned ugly shades of yellow and orange. Molly was very frustrated and scolded the twins for what they had done. Now, that was definitely something to laugh about.

&

But, the next day, Molly was still angry and was complaining about the condition of the house. Not only was the furniture ruined, but other parts of the house, in Molly's view, also needed some good cleaning up.

"I've never seen such a mess," Molly commented at breakfast. "This entire house needs work, especially from you two—" She glared at Fred and George who were sitting opposite her and had their usual mischievous looks on their faces.

"We'll all help, Molly," Remus offered. "You're right. This whole house is rather messy. It wouldn't hurt to give it some cleaning."

Everyone went separate ways to clean. The twins and Ron started in the living room (the messiest room in the house as of the night before) and the twins were forced to scrape off all the paint from the furniture without magic Hermione and Ginny did the dining room, and Sirius and Remus went for two of the bedrooms on the far end of the house.

The room Sirius had to clean was extremely dusty and probably hadn't been used since his mother had lived here. It was one of the bedrooms his mother would sometimes reserve for guests (who what with the reputation of the Black family, never showed up). Complete with a dusty four-poster bed, an armoire, and a tiny clothes closet, it was ten by twelve feet around, making it one of the smallest rooms at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

It was also the room in which Mrs. Black always put Sirius for his misbehavior. Because no guests ever came, she thought she could put it to good use, and what better use, in her opinion, could there be for it other than turning Sirius into a "proper gentleman."

Sirius didn't see needto clean the room, however, seeing as no one was _ever _going to sleep there. But, Molly Weasley was what one might call a neat freak and definitely someone whom no one would dare try to argue with. He sighed and began waving his wand, casting dust-removing charms through the room.

Suddenly, Sirius's body gave a quick jolt when he heard an abrupt noise coming from the closet. He turned around from the armoire where he was dusting, and saw the closet door open. Out came a small House-Elf with big ears and patches of dirty white hair dressed in a filthy pillowcase.

"Kreacher!" Sirius exclaimed, startled. He had seen neither hide nor hair of Kreacher in _months_. But, then again, as he thought about it, it wasn't that odd. Kreacher had disappeared for long periods of time in the past. Sirius remembered back when he was eight years old how Kreacher had gotten so angry with Sirius over something—_messing up the dishes he had just cleaned?_ Sirius couldn't remember exactly what for—and had disappeared (at least from Sirius' sight) for around a year. Sirius figured that every time Kreacher heard him coming, he would run the other way to avoid him. It was probably the same case, here, too, no doubt. Not that Sirius minded, of course. As a matter of fact, in Sirius's point of view, less time with Kreacher made his life a whole lot better.

"Kreacher must not pay attention to Master. Mistress would not like it. Master is a traitor." Kreacher glared at Sirius like a bat in the dark. "Mistress always wished Master Sirius was like Master Regulus. Master Regulus was a true Black."

_Regulus! _A bell rang in Sirius' head. _The locket! _He remembered what Hermione had told all of them about what she had seen regarding the locket Horcrux. For the longest time, Sirius had assumed that his brother had been killed by a Death Eater on Voldemort's orders, but after what Hermione had supposedly seen, he had begun to have second thoughts…. He _had_ to know how Regulus knew about the locket in the first place.

He shouted at Kreacher as the Elf began to walk out of the room, muttering incoherently to himself.

"Kreacher! Come back!" Unfortunately for Kreacher, as much as he would have liked to avoid Sirius at all costs, Sirius was still his master and he had to obey him. He turned back around, his eyes still fixed in his stony glare.

"What can you tell me about Regulus and a locket?" Sirius asked, and then remembered that he was the boss of Kreacher, and as such didn't need to _ask _anything of him, but had the power to demand whatever he wanted. "_Tell _me about Regulus and a locket! A golden locket! From a lake! I know you know what I'm referring to."

He gave Kreacher a look, daring him to deny that he knew anything. But, Kreacher did not make a move to deny anything at all. Instead, his look of hatred changed to one of sadness.

"Master Regulus joined the Death Eaters. He was so proud, so very proud. He had always wanted to serve the Dark Lord…" Kreacher began, tears filling eyes. This was rather odd for Sirius. Never once in his life had he seen Kreacher cry. "One night, Master Regulus came home and told Kreacher that the Dark Lord needed an Elf. So, Kreacher went to see the Dark Lord."

Unexpectedly, Kreacher fell to the floor and began rocking back and forth, sobbing heavily. "The Dark Lord took Kreacher to a cave near the sea…to a cavern…and a great black lake…."

Sirius did not know what to say or think about this, so he allowed Kreacher to continue at his own pace. Kreacher was still rocking back and forth on the floor, but had gone quiet and was silent for several moments. Sirius could hear the pitter-patter of the rain falling on the roof above the house. Finally, Kreacher began again.

"The Dark Lord made Kreacher get into a boat and took him to the island across the black lake…." Kreacher's eyes were now bloodshot from all the tears that had ran from his eyes, but Sirius could not interrupt, no matter how much he hated Kreacher and wanted him to finish. "The Dark Lord made Kreacher drink all the potion in the basin…Kreacher saw horrible things as he drank…." Kreacher's sobs now turned into wails. "He cried and screamed for Master Regulus and his Mistress, but the Dark Lord only laughed at him…Kreacher wanted to stop…He was scared and wanted to leave…." He stopped talking again and continued to rock back and forth.

Then, something happened within the depths of Sirius's soul that he neverthought would or _could _happen: he felt a pang of sadness and pity for Kreacher. He was reminded of himself, in Azkaban, alone, without anyone's care or consideration; wanting to leave, but only having the world laugh at him and his pleads of innocence. He remembered the Dementors and the horrible thoughts that would plague him every time they came near him, trying desperately to make him lose his mind. He remembered being treated worthlessly, as if he had no feelings, like scum on the bottom of a pond. He had been treated like an animal…just like Voldemort had treated Kreacher… just like he, Sirius, had always treated Kreacher….

Kreacher's high-pitched voice brought Sirius out of his own mind and back to the situation at hand. Kreacher was continuing to speak, still rocking on the floor in a fetal position.

"The Dark Lord refilled the basin with potion and put his locket inside… and sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island, to die…. Kreacher needed water…. He tried to drink from the lake, but hands came and grabbed him…. They tried to pull Kreacher into the water, but then, Master Regulus summoned Kreacher back home….When Kreacher arrived, Master Regulus was very worried, so very, very worried." Kreacher continued to cry loudly. Sirius was surprised that no one else in the house had heard him and hadn't come running in to see what all the commotion was about.

"He wanted Kreacher to take him to the cave…Kreacher obeyed…Master Regulus drank the potion in the basin…and he gave Kreacher a locket that looked like the Dark Lord's…and told Kreacher to put his locket in the basin and to take the Dark Lord's locket home and destroy it…Master Regulus told Kreacher to leave without him...and not to tell his Mistress….But, Kreacher failed to destroy the locket…he could not do it…." Kreacher now began to cry at his failure.

"Kreacher, don't cry! Please!" Sirius pleaded, trying to sound as polite as possible, something he had never thought he would be doing. But, Kreacher didn't deserve pain, Sirius now realized. He deserved to be comforted. Sirius tried to console him by picking him up off the ground and cradling him, trying to calm him, as odd as he thought doing it was.

Finally, the door opened, and in walked Hermione. Her face instantly split into a smile at the affection Sirius was showing Kreacher. It was the brightest smile that she had shone in days. If anything could cure Hermione's unhappiness, it was knowing that her long-time advocacy for House-Elves had finally paid off.

&

"Tell Riddle to come to Hogwarts on February seventh, and tell him to bring his whole army."

With that order, Dumbledore felt as though he was no longer running the war. Gellert Grindelwald seemed to be taking charge, and whatever he had in store for Voldemort, he was not hesitating to bring it about.

_Poor Tom. _There was no hope for him.

**End Note: **I hope you guys liked this chapter. I liked it pretty well. Please give me some reviews and some feedback and such, and the next chapter will definitely not end this story. There will be several chapters more to come before it ends. Please remember to give me some suggestions. What would you like to see in future chapters? Oh, and I know "Unwashable Paint" is a lame name. Please forgive me.

Merci Beaucoup,

Amélie 


	19. Chapter 19

Author's Note: Hi guys

**Author's Note: **Hi guys! Sorry for the wait. I've been trying to update all my stories one at a time. Enjoy Chapter Nineteen and please review. Thanks.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Nineteen

Three days had passed since Christmas, and Grindelwald was still refusing to say anything to Dumbledore regarding what he had in store for Voldemort, which in his case, was very unusual. When they were teenagers and either Dumbledore or Grindelwald had a marvelous idea, the first move either one of them made was to tell the other. But, of course, times had changed, and both of the teens had grown into different men.

What bothered Dumbledore about what Grindelwald was planning to do was exactly how he would carry it out. Of course, Grindelwald was very sneaky and undoubtedly had some spectacular way of doing it that no one else would think of (after all, Dumbledore himself _always _had spectacular ways of handling things, so who was to say that Grindelwald wouldn't?).

Grindelwald certainly didn't seem the least bit worried. He walked around in Dumbledore's office with a giddy smile on his face, one that he always wore when life was going perfectly for him. But, in fact, Grindelwald had always looked radiant and cheerful, no matter what the situation. Dumbledore thought it was just part of his personality.

The two geniuses were currently waiting for the arrival of one of Hogwarts' professors. Naturally, that professor, and not to mention all the other professors at the school, had no idea that he was about to meet Gellert Grindelwald and simply assumed that this was going to be a conversation between the Headmaster and himself.

Dumbledore heard the gargoyle turning slowly and strode over to the door, keeping a smile on his face. Grindelwald, meanwhile, was perched comfortably on top of Dumbledore's desk, a sight that didn't bother Dumbledore in the slightest. As a teenager, Grindelwald had always had a habit of seating himself in strange places, as though he were marking his superiority over the rest of the world. As such, Dumbledore was used to it and paid it no notice.

"Good day, Severus." Dumbledore shook the man's hand politely as he entered.

"Good day, Headmaster." Severus Snape replied smoothly, pushing his black hair back behind his ears. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, Severus. I have a mission for you—" Dumbledore began, but another voice cut him off.

"Actually, _I _have the mission." Grindelwald had slipped gracefully off the desk and strutted over next to Dumbledore. He always had to be the center of attention and the one to offer explanations, even in times where the situation was none of his business.

Snape's face paled drastically at the sight of Grindelwald whose eyes widened in a sarcastic shock.

"Why is it that _every _time a man lays his eyes upon me, he always has a tendency to frighten himself?" The former Dark Wizard asked, continuing to speak without waiting for an answer from either Dumbledore or Snape. "I need you to send this letter to Voldemort as soon as possible."

He handed a folded piece of parchment to Snape, who, as a spy for the Order of the Phoenix, had direct access to Voldemort and was one of the most influential Death Eaters in the Dark Lord's Inner Circle. Ergo, he was the perfect person to deliver the letter. He took hold of the letter slowly, apparently very confused about what was going on. Noticing this, Dumbledore said,

"Gellert is going to help us in our fight against Voldemort. He has a plan for defeating him, although he won't give me any lead as to what that plan might be."

Grindelwald gave his old friend a mischievous smile and turned his attention once more to Snape. "Give this letter to Voldemort and return to us with a response from him." Then, remembering his manners, he added, "please." Although, he said it like he hadn't used the word before in his life.

Snape looked to Dumbledore who nodded for him to comply. "Certainly," Snape said after a moment.

Grindelwald gave another smile as Snape turned on his heels and walked out of Dumbledore's office.

&

The Riddle House was, undoubtedly, the most foreboding house in the village of Little Hangleton, even with the crisp winter snowfall. Weeds took the place of the tidy grass that once surrounded the house and popped out of the white blanket jaggedly. The shutters around the windows were almost torn off their hinges and the windows themselves were broken and smashed in.

However, the physical appearance of the house was not the central aspect of what made it foreboding. That was the fault of the rumors of the curses and ghosts that supposedly haunted the house. It was first built by John Isaac Riddle in the sixteenth century. From then until 1942, the Riddle family occupied that house and held the status of the wealthiest people in the entire village. In fact, they owned half the valley. 1942 was the year that ended the family's legacy. In that year, the last known members of the Riddle family, Thomas Riddle, his wife, Mary, and their son, Tom, were murdered under mysterious circumstances. After their deaths, the rumors flooded the village. But, throughout the years, many new owners came to live in the Riddle House despite the rumors. None stayed all that long, however, and finally, the house ceased to be inhabited. Then, in 1993, the Riddle House had taken on a new owner, Tom Marvolo Riddle, the unknown heir to the Riddle fortune.

Lord Voldemort, however, had not gone to the trouble of refurnishing his family's old home. It was just as dusty and dilapidated as it had been for many years past. Snape curled up his nostrils as the foul stench of rotting wood came in contact with his nose as as the Dark Lord's servant, Wormtail, opened the door to the old sitting room, letting Snape in.

Wormtail was probably the stupidest and most cowardly person Snape had ever known. He was small, plump, watery-eyed, and always on edge. He said nothing as Snape entered the room, but closed the door timidly behind him and ran into the far corner of the room, near the fireplace.

The Dark Lord had been expecting him, as Snape had informed his "master" of his urgent arrival three hours before, right after the mysterious Grindelwald had handed him the letter. Snape couldn't see Germany's most infamous Dark Wizard helping Britain's cause in any way. After all, being a Dark Wizard, he was evil, just as Voldemort was. But, then again, Snape doubted that anyone, especially the children at Hogwarts, could see him, Severus Snape, as spy for the Order of the Phoenix. Like Snape assumed of Grindelwald, all the children assumed that Snape was evil, so that must have counted for something. Besides, Dumbledore seemed to trust Grindelwald, and of course, whatever Dumbledore thought had to be right.

Snape stepped forward in front of the chair in which Voldemort was seated and bowed humbly before him, as was required when one entered the Dark Lord's presence. Voldemort's snake Nagini slithered lazily around Snape's feet, making him feel slightly uncomfortable.

"My Lord," Snape said calmly, trying not to seem disturbed by what the snake was doing.

"You may rise, Severus." Voldemort spoke after about thirty seconds. Snape stood up straight and looked the Dark Lord in the eyes. Nagini, realizing that Snape was not a threat to Voldemort, slithered over to his chair and curled herself gracefully on the back of it above her master.

"You desired to speak with me?" The Dark Lord inquired, tilting his white head to the side and resting it in his bony hand.

"Yes, My Lord." Snape took out the letter Grindelwald had given him out of his cloak and handed it to Voldemort. The fire crackled nearby and the flames made Voldemort's face look more terrifying than it had ever been. Wormtail was rocking back-and-forth on the floor, sobbing quietly

The Dark Lord read the letter silently and then looked up at Snape when he had finished. There was a strange look in his red, snake-like eyes, one that Snape had never seen before.

_Could it be _fear_? _The Hogwarts Potions professor asked himself. But why would Voldemort be afraid of Grindelwald? Was it possible that Grindelwald knew things about Dark Magic that Voldemort himself, the most feared wizard of the age, did not?

Then again, as Snape thought about it deeper, he came to the realization that Voldemort had been showing fear of many things since Potter's death. It was ironic, as one would think that with Potter gone, Voldemort would be fearless and ready to take over everything and everyone. But, he was not acting fearless or bold. He had not strutted about the Ministry after Potter's death, proclaiming himself Minister of Magic. Instead, he had _fled _the Ministry.

He had not even been present during any of the Death Eater attacks that had taken place in the past few months since Potter had died. But why? Why was he so fearful now, of all times? Perhaps now that Potter was actually dead, Voldemort had to keep his focus on Dumbledore, the one he _certainly _did fear, as everyone knew. But, even then, it didn't make sense. After all, Dumbledore had been a threat long before Potter had come into the picture and Voldemort had taken action then….

Voldemort's expression softened and he spoke calmly, although a trace of that puzzling look was still visible.

"Tell them I will be ready."

&

_Grindelwald…the very thought of him made Tom's blood run cold. But he remembered him well. The wealthy manor with the art, the luxuries, and the diadem, none of which Tom could ever afford. His eyes burned with jealousy at everything the man owned. _

_He was the perfect wizard, exactly who Tom had always wanted to be. A pureblood, wealthy, powerful, handsome, and intelligent. He knew more about Dark Magic than anyone of the age, more than Tom could ever know, and Tom had been his biggest admirer. _

_Then, fear came into Tom's mind as he remembered what Grindelwald had done to him. It was the only time he had ever lost a duel, the only time he had ever flown backward into a marble wall with blood pouring from his nose. _

_"Never turn your back on anyone." The man smiled wickedly at the boy lying pitifully in front of him. But, it was true. There was so much Tom did not know about power, success, or how to battle in a duel._

_And all the while, Grindelwald laughed at him, calling him a fool, a stupid little fool, worthy of nothing. He remembered the blue eyes boring into his brown ones, daring him to fight back, daring for him to contradict anything Grindelwald said. He remembered being taunted and laughed at scornfully by a man who feared nothing at all and who was the embodiment of the one thing Tom himself feared._

_And now, after nearly fifty years, Tom would have to face the man again…_

&

Life at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place seemed to be changing dramatically since Sirius had had his sudden change of heart for Kreacher. Kreacher had given himself a bath, put on a clean pillowcase, and was showing himself frequently around the house in Sirius's presence. He even smiled every once and a while and seemed more than happy to help Sirius with housework, something that he had never done before.

This was making Hermione the happiest she had been since before her parents had died.

She began wearing her new shoes and jewelry around the house every chance she got, and had even tried to hug Kreacher once. Unfortunately, Kreacher was still prejudiced in favor of purebloods and did nothing but rebuke Hermione for her action. But, this didn't bother Hermione in the slightest. She simply smiled broadly at the House-Elf and walked on her way.

Ron, on the other hand, seemed quite disturbed by everything that was going on.

"I _know _I've entered an alternate universe," he said when he saw the good manners that were being shared between Sirius and Kreacher. He simply didn't believe that anything was real anymore, because none of it, as he said, was realistic. In his mind, there was no way that Sirius and Kreacher could ever be nice to each other. It just wasn't possible, especially not after what he had witnessed between the two the summer before last.

Throughout the six months that the quartet had been together as a team, Sirius had been growing very annoyed and bothered by all that Ron had been doing, as had Remus and Hermione. The complaining had started off as just little nags, but had then escalated into a huge problem. Then, during their last "adventure", Ron had refused to look for the Horcrux. Why was he being so stubborn? And the fact that Ron had reminded Sirius of _Peter _of all people when he had broken the statue in Mrs. Pettigrew's basement really set Sirius's hair on edge.

All this gave Sirius the mind to have a talk with him.

&

The upstairs hallway of Grimmauld Place was one of the scariest places in the house. For one thing, there was barely anything to light the hallway, apart from an old lamp that had been made out of a severed troll's leg, and Sirius did not feel comfortable touching it. The walls themselves were decorated with nothing but about fifty House Elf heads, something which Kreacher never seemed to take any notice of.

Sirius reached Ron's room, the same one he had shared with Harry the year before, and knocked on the door quietly.

"Yes?" Ron's voice was muffled from behind the thick wood of the door.

"Ron, it's Sirius. May I come in?" Sirius asked.

"Sure."

Upon entering the room, Sirius encountered an odd sight. Ron was sitting on his bed, his Chocolate Frog cards spread out in front of him. The bed next to him was made, but there were more Chocolate Frog cards spread out over the quilt.

"Harry and I used to play Go Fish and stuff with our Chocolate Frog cards because we didn't have real cards," Ron explained, without looking up at Sirius. "I like to pretend that we're still playing the games sometimes."

"Oh." Sirius nodded, but 'oh' was the only thing he could think of saying in response to that. He wasn't sure if what Ron was doing was normal behavior or not. Then again, Sirius sometimes had a habit of pretending to talk to Harry when he felt lonely. So, maybe Ron's behavior was normal, or maybe Sirius' behavior wasn't….

Remembering why he had come up here in the first place, Sirius asked the redheaded boy, "Ron, do you mind if we have a talk?"

Ron looked up at him. "Yeah, sure." Then, his expression changed and he had an odd look on his face. He stuttered slightly, responding again, trying to clarify himself. " I mean, 'yeah' as in 'we can have a talk'."

Sirius chuckled. "I knew what you meant. May I sit down?"

"Sure." Ron took his cards off of the bed and stacked them on the floor, clearing a spot on the bed for Sirius.

Taking the spot Ron offered him, Sirius began. "Ron, I want to know exactly why you've been acting the way you have these past few months."

Ron looked at him, bewildered. "What do you mean?"

Sirius gave him an unbelieving look. "You _know _what I'm talking about Ron. The complaining, refusing to look for Horcruxes, all that. Why are you doing that? It's not helping anything. Just making it worse."

"I know it's not." Ron took a deep breath and looked down at the quilt he and Sirius were sitting on. He traced the squares with his index finger "It's just…I'm worried that something's going to happen, you know. Someone's going to die or something…and—"

"You think that if you avoid doing this stuff, everything's going to be fine." Sirius finished the sentence for him. "It'll all just go away on it's own."

"Well, yeah." Ron looked at Sirius and bit his lip, looking a bit ashamed. "I mean, I know that it _won't_, I just feel better to…think that way."

Sirius nodded. "I understand, Ron. But, is it helping _you_?" And Sirius really did understand. Ron was using his complaining and his stubbornness to get away from reality. Luckily, though, his method wasn't as dangerous as what some people did

"No." Ron replied in a small voice to Sirius's question. "I feel bad because I'm letting you guys down."

Sirius gave a sigh. The whole house was quiet now. "Ron, how do you think Harry would feel if he knew you were acting like this?"

"I think he would probably be mad at me and I'm sorry for that. But, I just want everything to be better. I don't want the world to be this way. I don't want anyone else to die. I don't want to have to deal with all this." Ron was rambling on and on. Sirius knew these must have been thoughts that had been bottled up inside Ron for months now. He truly felt pity for the boy. He had never realized before how he really felt.

"I know you don't want to deal with this, Ron. I don't, either. None of us do. But, we have to. We have to get past all this. Then, once we do, it'll get better. Everything will turn out all right. " Then, Sirius added,

"I promise."

"Really?" Ron had tears in his eyes now. Sirius had only seen him cry once before and that had been at Harry's funeral.

"Yes." Sirius smiled. "But, until then, you have to persevere."

This reminded Sirius of Harry in his fourth year when he had confided in Sirius about the First Task in the Triwizard Tournament. Sirius remembered the fear in his godson's eyes when he had told him about the dragons that he would have to fight. But, there was nothing Harry could have done. There had been no way out of the Tournament for him, just as there was no way out of the war for the rest of them.

Then, Sirius thought of something else. It was something Dumbledore had told the Order of the Phoenix during the First War against Voldemort, during a time when everything seemed to be going downhill. He remembered it as clear as day:

"_The end has not yet come if there is still trouble."_

"The end has not yet come if there is still trouble." Sirius repeated the sentence aloud. "Remember that, Ron. Always remember that."

Ron seemed to be contemplating that sentence deeply. For a while, both he and Sirius were silent.

Finally, Ron gave a smile and said, "Alright." This was different from anything else Sirius had ever heard him say. For only one word, it was the most determined answer, the boldest answer, Sirius had ever heard anyone give, one that no one could change.

At that moment, Sirius knew Ron had made the decision to carry on and fight Lord Voldemort until the end.

**End Note: **I really hope you guys liked this chapter. "The end has not yet come if there is still trouble" was actually something along the lines of what my pastor said to us in a sermon. It was very uplifting for me and I thought it really fit in with this story, so I wanted to use it. I think it's something that everyone should remember when they go through hard times. PLEASE, PLEASE review!! I haven't been getting a lot of feedback, so please do review.

Beaucoup d'amour à tout le monde,

Amélie


	20. Chapter 20

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, guys

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the long wait, guys. I was trying to get going on my other story, but now I'm taking a break from that one and going back to this one for a bit. Please remember to review, especially you guys who have this story on your Story Alert/Favorite Stories List! Thanks.

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Twenty

January 7, 1997

It had been five days since school had started back and the DA was already starting up again, and this time, Tonks was giving everyone a real workout. In fact, Ginny thought that she had lost five pounds since she had been back at school.

There was no rest for any of them. Tonks tried to make it more challenging and made the older students conjure certain objects to make it seem as though there were real Death Eaters in the room, which scared almost all the children. And Ginny was no exception, even if she were one of the older students.

Ever since her first year at Hogwarts, Ginny's biggest fear had been to come face-to-face with Lord Voldemort. Not ten—or even five—feet away, but face-to-face, nose-to-nose. It was the last thing she ever wanted to do, and it was all because of the guilt she carried with her from five years ago.

She couldn't believe that she had actually trusted him. She had spilled out her deepest, darkest secrets to him. To him, the most evil man who ever lived. How could she ever forgive herself for what she had done? She had known that it was wrong, that she should never have trusted something that she didn't understand, and his diary had definitely been one of those things. And now, she was paying for what she had done with all of the nightmares that haunted her sleep and with every strike of terror that ran through her whenever she heard about the latest Death Eater attack, which had been at an increase in the past few months.

To make it all worse was the fact that he had been the one to kill those who were most dear to her: her uncles, her grandparents, and even the one whom she had fallen in love with, although he had no idea. Harry's death had made the guilt grow worse. He had saved her life. Why couldn't she have saved his? It made her feel like a failure and even more of a shameful person.

When would it all go away? 

"Ginny?" Suddenly, a dreamy voice brought Ginny from her thoughts.

"Oh," Ginny turned around and noticed Luna smiling at her, her butterbeer earrings dangling back-and-forth. "What is it, Luna?"

"I found Cho," Luna responded, gesturing at her side to where Cho Chang, Harry's ex-girlfriend was. Ginny had not spoken to the seventh-year Ravenclaw since Harry's funeral, and she had not participated in the DA since the previous year, so Ginny could only wonder why Luna would want to bring Cho back to the group.

"She was a big help last year," Luna explained dreamily. But, this puzzled Ginny even more.

_Big help_? Ginny thought, bewildered. What did Cho do last year, besides kiss Harry under the mistletoe? Plus, helping her best friend rat the whole group out. What help was that? But, then again, Ginny had to have some sympathy for the older girl. She had lost both of her boyfriends to murder, after all. It was more than anyone could stand.

But, still, Ginny couldn't help but feel a bit jealous when around Cho. Nevertheless, she had to put on a nice composure, thinking more about Cho's pain than her own. Besides, as Ginny had always been told, jealousy always made things more difficult than they already were.

"Hi Cho." Ginny decided to ignore Luna's comment and start a new conversation. She put a smile on her face and held out her hand, as though she and Cho were meeting for the first time.

"Hi Ginny." Cho's voice was small and shy, sounding as though she wasn't meant to be there. "Um…I'm sorry for all the stuff I did last year and—" She took a deep breath and looked as though she might cry. "—I really want to help now…I've realized that I can't just watch things happen. I want to avenge both of them."

And by 'both of them', of course, she meant Cedric and Harry. But, before Ginny had the chance to respond, Tonks joined the conversation.

"Who's this?" She asked politely with a smile on her face.

But, before Ginny could respond to that either, Luna was already introducing the two of them, and the door to the Room of Requirements opened.

It was Neville who walked through the door. Everyone stopped to look at him.

"Hi guys." But, Neville's look and tone were rather suspicious. His eyes looked a bit frightened and he was swallowing hard.

"What happened, Neville?" asked Brittany, who was by far the most talkative of anyone in the room. "Where'd you go?"

"Yeah, Neville," Ginny agreed. "You were gone an awfully long time."

"I had to help Professor Dunlap with something," Neville replied, the fear and shock still in his eyes. Ginny didn't believe that for one second. Professor Dunlap was their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and even though she had no classes with Neville, she doubted with his academic records that Professor Dunlap in particular would ask Neville's help with anything. But, Neville was in no mood to say anymore on the subject.

He went over and sat down in the corner of the room and began rocking back and forth. It was highly unusual behavior, even for someone like Neville.

"Come on, Neville." Ginny followed him over to the corner and sat down beside him. "You're not telling the truth. What's bothering you?"

"I can't say." Neville replied. "He says I'm not supposed to say anything."

It was bewildering. Neville looked the most scared Ginny had ever seen him and she had no idea what could be bothering him.

**End Note: **I'm really, really super sorry for how short this chapter is, but I really need some feedback! Please don't yell and PLEASE REVIEW AND GIVE ME SOME SUGGESTIONS! This story is really going downhill because no one is reviewing it and giving me any inspiration. And no, whatever Neville is scared of is nothing pedophilic or anything; so don't go off getting dirty minds here. Please give me your thoughts on what you think is going to happen next.

Merci,

Amélie


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, guys

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Twenty-One

January 20, 1997

Dumbledore had complete confidence in Grindelwald's abilities and decisions. But, he was very annoyed by the fact that the former Dark wizard had not enlightened the Hogwarts Headmaster of his plans, except for the part concerning one of his students.

Actually, _that _part hadn't even been all the way let out, apart from which student the plan concerned. Dumbledore just hoped the boy had the strength to carry out whatever it was Grindelwald wanted. Then again, he _had_ proven to be worthy before….

"You'll see how everything turns out," said Grindelwald, that same mischievous smile plastered to his face. "Everything I plan always turns out perfectly." 

They were in Dumbledore's office and had not said much to each other that day. Dumbledore could hear the birds outside and took in the rays of sunshine that were coming in through the window. But, at Grindelwald's last comment, it seemed as though the world had grown much darker and very silent.

"What?" Dumbledore's response to the comment was rather rough, but it was the first word that came into his mind at the absurdity of Grindelwald's statement. It wasn't true, and anyone could see that. It didn't have to be Dumbledore. "The duel between you and me did not go according to your plans, and we both know it."

Grindelwald looked at Dumbledore a bit accusingly.

"How do you know that wasn't the way I planned it?" The German asked, his eyebrows raised.

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore responded; but, after considering Grindelwald's question for a moment, he had somewhat of an idea what Grindelwald meant, although it was hard for him to believe. But, of course, Grindelwald's answer was exactly as he expected.

"I knew that neither one of us could win the battle because, in terms of abilities and intelligence, we were both equality matched, and would be fighting forever; realizing that fighting wasn't getting us anywhere, I decided to intentionally lose by allowing you to knock my wand from my hand. Besides, I felt ashamed of myself." 

"'Ashamed of' yourself?" Dumbledore echoed. Now, that was very hard to believe, considering all that Grindelwald had done in his life without ever looking back. 

"I felt really terrible about all the pain that I had caused you, so I decided to let you win." He smiled. "Everything that I had done to ruin your life, with Aberforth, with Ariana." He took a deep breath. "All that pain wasn't worth conquering the whole world. But, I didn't realize it until I was standing face-to-face with you that day."

Dumbledore didn't know what to say to this. But, he knew Grindelwald was telling the truth. He waited for him to continue.

"I'm truly sorry about what happened to Ariana. It was a foolish thing I did."

"It was a foolish thing we _both _did," Dumbledore corrected. He knew that ultimately, he himself was responsible for Ariana's death. But, both boys had been foolish and arrogant enough to act so rashly. "But, it served a purpose. If she hadn't have died, neither one of us would have learned anything of our wicked ways and would have continued to pursue them."

It had been a thought Dumbledore had wrestled with for years, and it was a horrible idea at that. To think of all the harm Grindelwald himself committed without Dumbledore's help, how much more horrendous would it have been _with_ him?

With Ariana's death, came the good side of Albus Dumbledore. His heart had opened up to the love of everyone else in the world, and he had been able to accomplish so many good things for the sake of Wizard kind. It was ironic, how, in her death, his sister had been more of an influence to her brother than anyone ever would have expected her be in life.

&

It had been nearly two weeks Death Eater attack, but now a new one had just taken place, making those who were currently taking up residence at Grimmauld Place a bit unnerved, but at the same time, suspicious. Voldemort was trying to show how fearless he was to the rest of the world by promoting these attacks, but he himself had not been present at any of them. Ron and Hermione were sitting in the living room on this peculiar day of January 20, discussing the situation at hand. The majority of the house was very quiet with no Molly bickering or yelling at anyone for a change.

"It's almost like he's scared," said Ron. "But, why would he be? I mean—" he tried to choose his words carefully "—does he have much of a threat anymore?" 

"Well, Dumbledore's still a threat, obviously," said Hermione. But, she furrowed her brow. "But, it still doesn't make sense, though, does it? If he's so high and mighty like he thinks he is, why is he not participating in any of his own battles?"

"Maybe he's second-guessing himself," suggested Ron, rereading the newspaper again. "And realizes that he's incompetent."

"I doubt it," said Hermione dully, resting her head on the arm of the sofa.

"Whatever else there is that's wrong with him, one thing is certain: he's one of the most naïve men on the planet." Remus had walked in from the dining room. "I couldn't help listening in on your conversation," he said. "But that's definitely one of my conjectures that I've come up with over the past few months."

"What's a 'conjecture'?" asked Ron, bewildered. Hermione snickered.

" A 'Conjecture' is a formal word simply meaning a 'guess'." Sirius stated as he walked into the room behind Remus.

"Anyway," Remus continued, "the point is that if he were so smart, he wouldn't be doing everything that he has been. For example," Remus began walking around the room as though he were a detect trying to piece a murder mystery together—"when hiding the locket Horcrux, he didn't think through all of Kreacher's abilities as a House-Elf. He was so rash and arrogant that he underestimated him, thinking without any consideration that House-Elves were useless and incapable of certain magical abilities just like wizards are. As such, Kreacher was able to take the Horcrux." 

"Kind of reminds me of something I would do," said Ron, sitting up in his chair. "I never read directions or anything before I go and do stuff. I'm really impulsive."

Remus ignored Ron's comment about himself and began speaking again. "Same with Peter. As careless as Peter himself is, why would Voldemort want to entrust him with anything? If he had thought it through all the way before giving the Horcrux to Peter, he would have realized that it was a mistake. He makes too many careless assumptions."

Sirius sat down on the couch beside Hermione and gave a sigh. "Just like I did."

"No," said Remus. "It was different in that with your situation, Peter was already working for Voldemort and there was nothing you could do about it. But, in Voldemort's case, there were plenty of reasons that he could have thought of as to why he shouldn't have given the Horcrux to Peter. Obviously, something would have gone wrong, which… it did."

To Hermione, it made a lot of sense. Voldemort had power and Dark Magic, but he certainly was too impulsive and arrogant to understand much, and he wasn't very careful in the least. There was no way he could win while keeping those flaws.

**End Note: **Hi guys. Ok, I know that these last two chapters have been rather short and boring and I know that you have a lot of questions regarding all kinds of stuff. But, don't worry. Be patient. These two chapters were really just fillers to set the stage and make a transition for the battle. I didn't want to just jump into the fighting, because I felt it would have happened too fast. The next chapter is going to start the battle and it will be much longer and all the pieces will start to fall into place. I promise. Please just bare with me. Oh, and I wasn't trying to dis Ariana in this chapter. I really think that her death, even though not a good thing, really did serve a purpose in the story, and I hope I got that purpose across without making it seem as though I wished she died, because I didn't at all. Please remember to leave a review and give me your thoughts.

Merci,

Amélie


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note: **Here it is! The beginning of the end….

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Twenty-Two

**February 7, 1997**

The clock struck nine and Neville's heart began to cringe. He knew what was going to happen in just a few short moments…he had waited two weeks and the time had finally come.

Looking out of the window from his dormitory, Neville could see the stars shining in the dark sky onto the crisp snow below.

"What's wrong, Neville?" Dean Thomas asked as he sat up straight on his bed. "Do you see something?"

Without an answer, Dean got up off the bed and walked toward the window, trying to see whatever it was he thought Neville was looking at.

"Yeah," Neville responded quietly and fearfully to Dean's question. He was the most scared he had ever been in his life, even if Grindelwald had assured him that everything would be fine.

But, how much trust could he put in a former Dark wizard? He didn't think he could put very much, but then again, Dumbledore seemed to trust him and _his_ judgment was good enough for anyone.

"What's going on?" A groggy voice made Neville jump and whip around, holding his breath tightly, but he let it out when he realized it was only Seamus talking.

The Irish boy turned on the lamp on his bedside table and hopped off his bed to join the other two boys at the window.

"What are you guys looking at?" Seamus asked, big bags under his eyes from lack of sleep for several nights in a row.

"No idea," replied Dean, shrugging his shoulders. "Whatever Neville's looking at."

Suddenly, Neville felt an iron fist clamp around his heart as he saw movement in the shadows of the grounds. Like a herd of ants, the Death Eaters marched across the grounds, waiting to plot destruction and end the war once and for all. Neville's thoughts turned, as they had been doing for the past two weeks, to the object that lay hidden underneath his bed. He couldn't believe this was actually happening.

&

The wind was blowing steadily on the three hundred masked Death Eaters as they walked slowly toward the gates of Hogwarts, being cautious and on the lookout for anything strange, as the Dark Lord had instructed them to do.

For everyone had to be careful what with Dumbledore and Grindelwald in their midst. They were the two most brilliant men of their time and knew more about power and magic than any other wizards; and Voldemort knew that both of them, whether together or separate, could crush him if he wasn't too careful. So, that was what he had to be: careful.

But his idea of carefulness was not enough. Within an instant of reaching the castle doors, the trees and plants surrounding the area erupted with roots and vines, which wasted no time in binding themselves around the many Death Eaters, squeezing the very life from their bodies.

Those who could fired curses in all directions, trying to protect themselves desperately from the despicable death traps. Voldemort, of course, fought the hardest, and managed to evade total capture from the vines, with only getting his foot caught. His snake Nagini was wrapped securely around his shoulers, hissing like an angry cat at the groping vines.

"_Lecarnum Inflamarae_!" The Dark Lord shouted. In an instant, fire erupted from the tip of his wand and collided with the snow. But, the vines were persistent. They continued to engulf and suffocate the many Death Eaters, pulling them down into the frozen earth, crushing bones and breaking necks. There was screaming and gasping and pleading from all directions, but the vines were merciless.

Finally, after at least twenty minutes of suffering and horror, the vines subsided their strangulation. Only around one hundred Death Eaters remained, notably Mulciber, MacNair, and Wormtail, the latter 's life being a miracle for as dumb as he was. But, Voldemort, of course, could care less about his Death Eaters. What was important was the fact that he himself had managed to escape, foiling the plan of the two old men…. or had he? Was this what they had in mind?

"Come, you fools!" He shouted behind him in their general direction.

They stumbled, scared and uncertain, towards him, but he was rather impatient. Without waiting for them, he trudged on toward the entrance doors to Hogwarts, waiting for something else to happen.

And indeed, it did. With one touch of the handle on the door, came an ear-piercing scream, sending every Death Eater on his or her knees.

&

The two of them had watched the entire scenario from Dumbledore's office, and all the while Grindelwald had been smiling. When the Death Eaters had made their way toward the entrance, screams could be heard bouncing off the castle walls, no doubt waking up every single student and teacher in the building.

&

And of course, it had. Ginny awoke with a start to the most bizarre noise she had ever heard, as did the rest of the girls in her dormitory. It was a loud, piercing scream, much like a banshee's, the most aggravating noise Ginny—or any of the girls for that matter— had ever heard.

"What was that?" Ginny heard a voice yelling from over the ruckus. It was Tanya, one of the girls in her dormitory.

"I have no idea," Ginny replied, screaming just a loud as Tanya was. Her eardrums were bursting and her head was pounding with pain. She could feel herself tremble all over. "But we have to find out." She threw off her covers and ran toward the door, stumbling over the side of another girl's bed in the process. It was so dark that she could barely see anything.

Tanya turned on the light so that all the girls could see, but Ginny was already flying out the door and down the stairs to the common room. Suddenly, she collided with someone. It was dark and as such, she couldn't see much, but she heard someone moaning when she pulled away from them. Her skull was pounding, but she didn't know if whether it was from the noise or the person whom she had collided with.

Suddenly, everyone started scrambling from out of their dormitories and running down the stairs to see where the noise was coming from. People were shouting, some were crying, but not a soul was calm.

"Ginny?" She heard a loud voice in front of her, yelling from all the noise. It was a boy's voice-Neville's. It must have been him who she had collided with.

"Neville?" Ginny shouted, straining her eyes to see whether or not she could make out his form. Suddenly, someone frantically turned on a light. Finally. Ginny could see Neville's tired and fearful features in front of her, but had a hard time concentrating on what to say. It was so chaotic. "What's going on?" She finally asked after about a full minute, as though Neville would know what was going on.

"It's You-Know-Who." Neville's voice was solemn and frightened, but very loud all the same.

What? This was not what Ginny had expected, and neither had anyone else. There was instant silence from the whole common room following Neville's words. And strangely enough, as though Neville's comment had been the key that locked the screaming, the noise stopped.

"What?" A fifth year boy asked Neville suspiciously after a few seconds of sinking in everything that had just happened.

"Are you sure?" Ginny asked skeptically before giving Neville a chance to reply to the boy's question. She was only hoping that he was wrong.

"Yeah," Neville replied. "Just don't ask me how I know. I can't explain it."

The whole common room began to panic again, and many of the older students began frantically picking up chairs and trying to block the portrait hole. The younger children were screaming and running around the room in terror, not knowing what to do or what to think, except that it was the worst moment of their lives.

"What are we going to do?" asked Ginny over the panic. It was as though a ring of darkness had surrounded her. Her body was really trembling now, and she was sweating all over.

"We're going to need to fight," Neville replied. Suddenly, Ginny could hear noise from somewhere else in the castle, and everyone instantly went quiet.

Neville was right. They couldn't just sit around and do nothing. Voldemort could not get away with his terror. He had to be stopped. Besides, were all those DA lessons for nothing at all? They had to do something….

"We should contact Tonks and the other members of the Order. But, I'm sure Dumbledore's probably already done that." Neville's voice was very quiet.

"Yeah," replied Ginny, whispering, suddenly realizing something. She turned around to look for Tanya and noticed the brown haired girl with her arm around one of the younger students, handing completely still, a look of absolute fear plastered on her face.

"Tanya," she said. "I need your owl."

"What?" Tanya's eyes widened in shock, as if to ask why in the world would Ginny want to write a letter now. But, she was the only person who kept her owl in a cage next to her bed; and it was probably wide-awake by now from all the commotion. "What for?" Tanya asked.

Ginny took a deep breath. "I think we should all say goodbye to our parents…just in case." She could feel the tears rising behind her eyes, but she knew it was what had to be done. Even accomplished, skilled Aurors risked dying daily and probably said goodbye to their loved ones. So, why should they, as students, be any different?

"We need to do it, fast." Ginny whispered to her friend, who was now shaking horribly. The commotion outside Gryffindor Tower was growing louder. Battle was brewing.

&

Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place was very quiet and dark. Ron slurped down a glass of pumpkin juice while Hermione stared at him in annoyance, although Ron didn't seem to notice until the girl said something.

"You really need to be more polite," she snapped. "It's highly unattractive, the things you do."

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, which made Hermione wince in disgust. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a man, and men don't always have to be polite."

"That's not true," Hermione countered. "Sirius and Professor Lupin are men, and they're polite."

"Well, they're older men. Younger boys like me don't have to be polite until we're twenty-five. It's a rule," said Ron, shooting off his mouth off at her, which he did almost on a daily basis.

Hermione was just about to reply with a smart remark of her own when she heard a loud crash through the window. She and Ron ran from the kitchen and into the living room of Grimmauld Place to find a brown owl sitting on the sofa with a letter clutched in its beak.

Molly, Remus, and Sirius also ran into the living room from opposite directions of the house. Large shards of glass littered the floor.

"What was that?" Molly asked, her face very pale and horrified at the loud crash of glass, not yet realizing that an owl was in the room.

"It's an owl, Mum," answered Ron. He ran over and took the letter from the owl's beak. It read:

_Dear Mum and Dad and Family,_

_I just wanted to say that I love you guys. It'll probably be the last time I ever write to you. _

_Something's happened. He's here._

_Ginny._

**End Note:** So, obviously, none of them are going to just sit there and let Ginny die. In the next chapter, the quartet will go to Hogwarts to fight and a lot of surprises and stuff await. Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter. I tried to make it as suspenseful as possible. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take a break from this story and work on my other one because I've got a good hold on this one now that the battle has officially started. School's starting back this Monday, but I'll try to update as often as I can. I hope you guys continue to read and give me some feedback. I'm really worried that people are starting to find this story uneventful and boring. Is it? Please give me some feedback!! I appreciate all the reviews I have been getting so far and I'm very happy that a lot of you have this story on your alerts and favorites. Thanks.

Beaucoup d'amour à tous,

Amélie


	23. Chapter 23

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Twenty-Three

There was barely any light in the tunnel that all of them were traveling in. In fact, the only light that there was happened to be from their wands, which didn't give off very much light to begin with. Luckily, the tunnel was large enough for all of them to run through.

Yes. Run. There was no time for them to dilly-dally. They had to move quickly.

The quartet, along with Molly and Tonks (whom they had contacted), had Apparated to Hogsmeade in an attempt to use the secret passageways that led to Hogwarts. They only hoped that when entering the castle, they wouldn't meet anything too sinister on the other side.

Hermione was worried. It had taken so long for them to finally get here. What was going on at Hogwarts? Of course, she knew Voldemort was there, but was everyone okay? Dumbledore was probably of good use, no doubt about it. But, what about all the children? Sure, they had taken part in the D.A., but were they really ready to fight a bunch of Death Eaters, and maybe even Voldemort himself?

Tonks was trying to be as optimistic as possible. She continued to ramble (a habit she had of doing when she was nervous) about how much progress they had made in the past few months, how they were almost full-fledged Aurors. But, Hermione had researched the profession enough to know that teenage wizards could not become full-fledged Aurors without a certified course, and the DA, unfortunately, was no such thing and did not qualify any of them. As such, it was extremely dangerous for the children to fight like they were being trained to do and the risks were very high. But, Hermione couldn't blame Tonks for having so much faith in all of them. They had worked very hard.

Then again, she, Neville, Luna, Ron, and Harry had all taken on Death Eaters, so maybe the other students were ready after all.

Unfortunately, she was so wrapped up in thought by now that she could no longer hear Tonks rambling, and she did not pay any attention to when

Sirius yelled, "Here it is!"

Everyone stopped running and Hermione bolted right into Ron.

"Here's the entrance!" Sirius pointed his wand and shouted a spell that Hermione had never heard before. She knew it was a mean thing to be in a situation like this, when Hogwarts was getting attacked and people were probably injured and even dying, but she felt angry with herself for not knowing whatever spell it was. She was a perfectionist and had to know everything.

She noticed a wall slide open in front of her and could hear all kinds of noises behind it.

&

"I cannot believe you actually killed all of those Death Eaters."

Actually, he could believe it. Before this, Grindelwald had already killed millions of people, both magic and Muggle, so who was to say that he wouldn't do it again? Dumbledore just didn't like it that Grindelwald had killed a bunch of Death Eaters in the name of justice. Yes, of course, the Death Eaters themselves killed people, but why stoop to their level? That was what Dumbledore did not understand in Grindelwald's methods. And to think that he once knew every thought in the man's head, knowing him so well that he could even finish his sentences.

Currently, the two of them were in the process of battling several Death Eaters on the staircase who looked as though they Apparated out of nowhere, which, of course, was impossible for them to do in this castle. Fortunately for the masked men, Grindelwald had not swatted any killing curses at them.

The fighting did not prevent either man from carrying on a conversation.

"If I had not," the German responded to his old friend's question after shooting a stunning spell at the Death Eater who was now currently on the step in front of him, but soon flew back down to the bottom of the stairs. "Then, half of the students would most likely be dead by now, even if they had been 'training' to fight evil."

Yes, that was true. The Death Eaters did not show any mercy and mostly likely never would. The several in front of the two old wizards whom they were dueling were no exception. Each of them had fired the Killing Curse at least once. It surprised Dumbledore at how much agility he himself still had for being as sick as he was. He had been able to adequately counter all of the curses thrown at him.

But, what was even more surprising was that Voldemort was nowhere to be found.

&

The whole scene was chaos. Students, teachers, and Death Eaters were screaming and shooting curses in all directions. Some were hanging off staircases while others were throwing objects. There was no telling where the battle was leading.

"SPLIT UP!" Shouted Sirius. "We need to be spread out. There's a ton of them."

Spoken like a true Auror, Hermione thought. She saw Molly and Tonks go off in one direction, Ron and Remus another. She hoped they would be all right.

But there was no time for worries. The fight had begun. She and Sirius were immediately greeted with a mixture of students shouting their names and a bunch of Death Eaters making them their targets.

"Errona Eximae!" Hermione shouted at an approaching Death whom she recognized as being one from the Department of Mysteries. That made her all the more angry.

She noticed several students in her year fighting near her, and doing a very good job at that. Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff, whom Hermione had always considered a gullible klutz, had just fired a perfect Petrifocus Totalus spell at her opponent. The DA had been a success after all.

Then, Hermione was forced to turn her attention on someone else. It was a man of around thirty with black hair and a beard. He was not dressed in Death Eater robes, but he seemed slightly familiar. If he was a Death Eater in disguise, she could not take any chances.

"_Expelliarmus_!" She shouted at him, but missed, as he ducked clear of her shot.

"I'm a TEACHER!" The man shouted back. "How could you fire at me? Can't you I'm in the midst of battle?"

No, Hermione had not noticed until he said it that the man was fighting a Death Eater and was doing a very fine job, much like an Auror. Maybe he had been one before, like Mad-Eye Moody had been.

"Hermione! Look out!" Sirius came up from behind and knocked her out of the way of the Cruciatus curse. She had not even seen it coming. Thank goodness he had been there.

There were much more Death Eaters than Hermione had originally thought. But, it was surprising at how good the children were at fighting them off. Several of the students had knocked the Death Eaters clean off their heels and others were throwing some of the most advanced curses there were. Hermione was very impressed.

"_Expecto Patronum_!" A large silver dragon swooped down as though from out of nowhere and engulfed several of the Death Eaters, making them fall to their knees in agony.

Who's was that? Hermione was bewildered. It was so powerful it had sent half the Death Eaters down. She looked around the hallway until she noticed someone standing on the balcony, wand pointed outward. It was someone with long dark hair who appeared to be of Asian descent. She suddenly recognized the voice.

It was Cho Chang.

Cho conjuring a Patronus that large? It was unbelievable. But, then again, believable. Harry had done it, but under different circumstances. But, it was quite unbelievable for Cho. Hermione had never seen her as very confident. She must have been very determined. Of course, she had been through a lot of hardships, after all. Facing a Death Eater after all that meant that she had to have confidence and hope. Cedric and Harry might very well have been a cause of it.

The Death Eaters were very amazed as well, but they had no idea who had conjured the Patronus. Many of them were so overwhelmed that it seemed as though they had forgotten that they were fighting and started screaming all over the place, which was odd in Hermione's opinion. She had always pictured Death Eaters as fearless and tough, but as she had been seeing continuously over the passed year, one's first impressions weren't always correct.

The students were still running and screaming, just as more Aurors and members of the Order started arriving, popping out of all the secret passageways, which apparently weren't so secret anymore.

It was the most disastrous night there ever was.

&

Tonks and Molly had ventured off into toward the Astronomy Tower, where there was just as much fighting as there was on all the staircases. Death Eaters, students, and teachers (Sprout, Vector, and a few others whom Tonks did not know) were attacking each other with as much force as they could muster, but no one had died yet.

Tonks met her match with her uncle, Rudolphus Lestrange, who was not over the fact that his wife was dead and apparently blamed Tonks for the murder, even though she took no such part in it. But, Rudolphus and Bellatrix had one of the worst marriages of all time. There was absolutely no love between them. At least not on Bellatrix's side, anyway. Rudolphus obviously had some affection for his wife if he were trying to avenge her death.

He shot what had to be ten Killing Curses her way, but she wasn't sure because she had lost count after about the third one. She held on strong and continued to throw every curse she could think of his way. He was very dangerous, after all. In fact, one of the most dangerous Death Eaters that Voldemort had.

But, finally, the tables turned when Molly rounded on him.

"You get away from her, you swine!" The woman shouted. That distracted Tonks from anything and everything. She had never expected Molly to attack anyone. It was just not something she was capable of doing, everyone thought so.

But, she did it.

In three seconds, the plump, homely mother changed from a sweet sweater-knitting cook to one of the most powerful witches Tonks had ever seen. She conjured such a powerful Expelliarmus curse at Rudolphus Lestrange that it slammed him into the wall, knocking him unconscious and bleeding from his skull.

Tonks was in shock for quite a while and couldn't even mutter a "thank you". She had even forgotten that there was a battle going on around her, when suddenly, her blood ran cold when she finally noticed what was now happening.

Voldemort's enormous python Nagini had joined the fray and was trying desperately to sink her teeth into anyone who was opposing her, and it looked as though she knew exactly who those people were.

She lunged for all of them, both teacher sand student, without hesitation and was very fast. She was evading all curses from every direction, something Tonks had never seen a snake do. What with all these people, certainly someone could stop her. But, that wasn't a case. She was a fast and as clever as though she were the Dark Lord himself.

The entire situation changed abruptly when Nagini had shown up, as if she had Apparated to where everyone was. She had already bitten several people (although all of them were still fighting vigorously, so she must have not been venomous) but now she had put her focus straight on Tonks. The huge snake whipped her tail around so fast that it knocked Tonks' wand from her hands. She had the sharpest fangs that Tonks had ever seen in her life. Even if she wasn't venomous, a bit in a crucial area of the body could mean death.

Tonks' thoughts ran straight back to Harry. His face cold and pale, blood pouring like a fountain from his neck. The pain and horror he must have felt suddenly flooded through Tonks' own body as the snake sunk her teeth into her left wrist. She screamed as loud as she could, the pain was so fierce and horrible. She gripped at her wrist and could feel her whole body going into shock. The tears were streaming down her face as she closed her eyes and prayed that the snake would go away and not think of lunging for her again.

"Tonks!" She heard a voice somewhere in front of her and recognized it immediately. She opened her eyes to see where what was going on.

"_Avada Kedavra_!" A jet of green light flew toward her and in an instant, in front of her, lay Nagini, like an rag doll, limp and dead.

"Brittany!" Tonks shouted in happiness, her fears melted away. Brittany had cast the curse that saved her life.

She could not stand up, but the little girl ran up to her and hugged her with all her might. Tonks kissed her cheek and began crying into her shoulder.

"Brittany, you saved my life…" She was so happy.

"I knew I wasn't supposed to use that spell," said Brittany, who was crying just as much as Tonks was. "But, I knew that in self-defense, you have to use it; and that snake was gonna kill you. I had to use it."

"Thank you, Brittany. Thank you…."

&

There were many more Death Eaters near the Hufflepuff Common room where Remus and Ron were. They were firing curses and Ron had been hit once with a spell that put a huge gash in his shoulder, but he was holding on and continued to fire as many curses as possible.

Gone were his fear and his complaints. This was a whole new Ron, one that Remus had never seen before, and he was proud of that. He was fighting like a champ and the hero that everyone knew he was.

All the Death Eaters were new to Remus, except for Wormtail.

He was not very happy when he found Peter Pettigrew standing before him. He did not even have the heart to show a mock greeting of any sort.

"_Expelliarmus_!" He shouted in absolute anger at the small blond man who had once been his friend. The man flew back into the opposite wall, but remained conscious, his wand laying broken in half at his side. Remus charged toward the man with his wand pointed directly at his heart.

His immediate thought was to shoot the Killing Curse at him, he was so angry. Peter had done everything wrong. He had betrayed his best friends and took many lives, certainly that was worthy of death. But, then, suddenly, the voice in the back of his mind spoke up. Yes, Peter was at fault, but did he really deserve death? Was he as evil and as demented as Bellatrix Lestrange or Voldemort, who would never stop killing?

Remus remembered all those times at school when Peter had been afraid and picked on by all the other students. He had never fit in, and the three had always been there to help him. Peter had repaid the kindness and friendship he had been shown with evil, but wouldn't Remus be doing the same? Peter was not the kind who would continue to kill. Bellatrix and Voldemort were, yes, but not Peter. He was worthy of forgiveness.

"Go ahead," demanded Peter. "Do it." His eyes were fearful, but honest. Peter knew he had done wrong.

"I can't do it," Remus said solemnly, staring at Peter through watery eyes. "I know you have done a lot of things, but I can't kill you."

Peter looked at him shocked.

"You mean, you won't kill me? After all I've done?" Voldemort's servant asked.

"No," replied Remus. "I won't. You can go to Azkaban when all this is over, but I'm not killing you." The anger was still present in Remus' mind, but it had calmed down. "You can live with your mistakes."

&

It was utter chaos. More so than anything Sirius had ever seen. He couldn't believe it was true. Students were screaming, but fighting like champions. Sparks and colors were flying in every direction, people were falling down and ducking. There was no such thing as peace, at least not now.

But, he didn't have the time to think about that. He had to fight. Fight for goodness, for freedom. For Harry….

Thinking of Harry brought tears to Sirius' eyes. He remembered holding the boy in his arms as he died, remembered the words he said, "you're the greatest thing that ever happened to me."

He could not and would not let go of that. Not now, not ever.

There was a very loud scream behind him as Hermione tumbled down the stairs. A Death Eater was right on her trail and was about to cast a curse when Sirius shouted, "Rigdusimpra!" The Death Eater went flying down the staircase and landed, hard at the bottom.

Both Sirius and the teacher whom Hermione had almost killed made their way over to her hurriedly.

"Are you alright?" Both of them asked at the same time.

Hermione was crying and looking hurt. "I think my leg's broken."

And she looked to be right from where Sirius was standing. It was limp and sticking out at an odd angle. But what could they do now? How could they fix it with all this chaos?

"I'll take her," the professor said. He swooped Hermione up in his arms. Sirius looked straight up at him and saw something familiar about his eyes. A strange thought suddenly floated into his mind, but no. It wasn't possible….

"Thank you, sir." Hermione said through clenched teeth and watery eyes, bringing Sirius back from his thought.

"My name is Professor Dunlap, by the way," the professor said, but without another word, he ran with Hermione in his arms back up the stairs and was soon out of sight.

Sirius knew he had to turn back to the situation at hand. He could tell the night was not over yet. And he was right.

&

He had seen Cho just produce a magnificent Patronus, but could he be that confident to do what he needed to do?

Neville had never been very brave. In fact, no one had ever had much confidence in him. So how could he do this? Yes, he had fought Death Eaters, and sure, he could conjure some very good spells. He even had a rather effective Patronus. Nowhere near as good as Cho's of course, but it was something.

But this, this task…was an impossibility. Harry could have done it better. He had been brave and strong, but not Neville. There was no way he could live up to someone like Harry.

But, maybe that was why he had to do it. For Harry. He would have wanted Neville to do it, and he certainly wouldn't have put Neville down. His mind kept going back to that day so long ago when Harry had flown on a broomstick to get his Remembrall back from Malfoy when no one else would. Harry had believed in Neville so much that he had been prepared to defend him.

Now it was Neville's turn to pay Harry back. His death would not in vain.

&

Ginny, Luna, and Tanya were faced with one of the largest crowds of Death Eaters they had ever seen, and they were trapped between them and windows that led two hundred feet downward.

But, Ginny did not see the secret passageway that suddenly opened behind her. She did not see the two long, white hands that came out and pulled her by the hair, dragging her back into the passageway, until it finally happened.

She screamed as loud as she possibly could, but she knew he would give her no mercy. He turned her around and forced her to look at him, and she saw her biggest fear standing in front of her, his snakelike red eyes staring at her with maliciousness.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley. I've been wondering when I would see you again."

**End Note:** Hi guys. I hope you all like that chapter. I tried to make it as suspenseful as possible and add a lot of twists to it and a cliffhanger to it. I hope things didn't happen too fast. I also wanted to explain some stuff. As a Christian, I wanted the good people to have morals in this story and to consider things before they did them, that was why there was so much of a discussion of the issue of killing others. No, I do not support it and I am not glorifying it at all. I believe that Peter was worthy of forgiveness, that's why I didn't have Remus kill him, but I believe that Bellatrix would not change. That's why I had Sirius kill her. Also, I am not putting anything sexual in this story at all, so you guys don't go off getting ideas about any of the characters. I just wanted to clear that up so that everyone knew what I was getting at. Anyway, there is going to be one more chapter and then an epilogue! Stay tuned and please review and comment on specific aspects of this chapter, PLEASE!!

Merci,

Amélie


	24. Chapter 24

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Chapter Twenty-Four

Searing pain shot through Hermione's right leg as she sat on the floor with the broken appendage outstretched over a wooden chair. It was without a doubt the most uncomfortable position Hermione had ever been in, but there was nothing else Professor Dunlap could do for her. He had chosen the closest room to put her in to be away from all the fighting.

But that was what upset her the most. She was supposed to be out there defending the Wizarding world, not shut up, helpless, inside a classroom. Besides, the classroom's atmosphere was very depressing. The walls were dark and a sad ray of moonlight was coming from the window. The lighting was very dim.

"I shouldn't be here," Hermione complained. She knew it would not make any difference to Dunlap what she said, but that was all she could think of to say. There was no way she would sit here in silence with a battle raging on outside. How could anyone do such a thing with all this commotion?

"You are not prepared to fight with this kind of injury," Dunlap replied darkly, gesturing toward her leg. It was drastically swollen now and appeared even more crooked than it had originally.

Hermione sighed, fully aware of the pain that was growing in her leg. It wasn't fair. Fighting in this war was a way to avenge her parents and Harry and everyone else who had either died or lost loved ones. She couldn't be useless at a time like this. Tears were welling behind her eyes, more from shame and sadness than from pain.

Dunlap sat down beside and her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Did you know him?" The Professor asked quietly, the sound of terrified screams and crashes seeming farther and farther away.

"Who?" asked Hermione, sniffling. Of course, she knew who Dunlap was referring to, but it was an impulsive answer.

"Harry Potter," Dunlap said.

Hermione looked straight into his eyes. "Yes," she responded, wiping away her tears while her leg still throbbed. "He was a very good friend of mine. I cried for days after he died."

Dunlap looked at her sadly. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss. I know how you feel. I've lost much in my lifetime."

His eyes were just as watery as hers were now, but she couldn't look away. There was something about his eyes. They seemed so familiar….

Suddenly, something in the back of Hermione's mind clicked. The eyes she was staring into were those of a young man whom she had seen standing on an island in the middle of a lake, shouting at his House-Elf.

She gasped and felt as though her leg were about to slip off the chair. She tightly clutched onto it to keep it from doing so.

"You're Regulus Black!" She shouted. She was not mistaken. There was no way that she could be. Everything was coming back. She could see the boy's features etched in the same man's face.

Dunlap's eyes widened. "Excuse me? I don't know who you're referring to." He was very defensive, but Hermione could see through it all.

"I know you are! You took the locket Horcrux from that Black Lake and told Kreacher to take it back home to destroy it!" There was no way he could object, Hermione knew. He had to tell her the truth.

Dunlap looked down at the floor and buried his face in his hands. "Yes," he finally looked back up at her. "I am Regulus Black."

Tears were now very evident in his eyes. But, was it shame? Fear? Hermione couldn't tell, but she wanted know why he had been hiding all these years, faking his own death.

"Everyone thinks you're dead." Of course, he would know that, but Hermione couldn't help emphasizing the point. Faking his own death was a wrong thing to do, even if he were trying to make it something good.

"I know they do, but I couldn't risk anything in stealing that locket." Regulus looked back at her ashamed, his face now very pale.

"How did you get off that island?" Hermione asked, astonished that he was capable of doing such a thing.

"I saw Kreacher Apparate away, but I fainted. Finally, when I regain consciousness, I knew I needed a way to get off the island…so I took the basin and transfigured it into a boat that I could ride across in. But, I knew I couldn't go back to my family. I was scared for them. I was afraid that they would get in trouble if Voldemort found out what I had done, so I fled, hoping to protect them. I moved to the United States and changed my name to Dunlap in hopes that no one would ever find me. Eventually, I got a teaching job there. But, when I found out that my brother had broken out of prison, I had to come back, and I eventually got a job as the Defense teacher here."

"But, you are going to tell Sirius, aren't you?" Hermione asked, her leg now going numb from all the pain.

Regulus ran his hands through his black hair and let out another sigh, but gave no answer.

You won't tell him?" This was appalling. Regulus was the only immediate family Sirius had left. Seeing him alive would be just as wonderful to Sirius as having Harry back. He deserved to know that he still had his brother. He needed him in his life, Hermione was sure of it.

"You have to tell him that you're alive!" Hermione could hear herself shouting now, and was very surprised that no one from either side had not come bursting into the room. "He loves you. I know he does! He already cries himself to sleep over Harry. Think of how happy he would be if he knew you were alive."

Regulus shook his head. "He would be ashamed of me if he knew I was alive after all these years and pretended as though I weren't."

"Well, he might be ashamed, yes, but he would still love you all the same." Hermione could feel herself growing angry with the man in front of her. "I know he would. I've lost both my parents and nothing would make me happier than to see them again."

The tears were coming again, but Hermione did not make an effort to hold them back. "Sirius loves you the same way. You have got to tell him you're alive. He would be thrilled just as I would be. Please, let him know."

Regulus put one arm around Hermione in an effort to comfort her. "Alright," he said, nodding. "I'll tell him when this is all over, but until then, it's a secret. Agreed?"

He reached out his hand for Hermione to shake. She took it and responded, "Agreed."

Then, her expression changed and she hardened her face. "Now, take me out there and let me fight!"

Regulus looked all the more disagreeable. "No. You are in no condition to fight."

"You can hold me up on your shoulders," Hermione said. She was not about to stay behind and just drop everything. "I've come this far, and I'm not quitting just because of a broken let."

Regulus sighed. "Alright, but if anything else happens, it's your fault."

"I'll hold myself to that," Hermione grinned slightly.

&

Her breathing was harsh and uneven. Her palms were sweaty and her stomach was twisted in fear, but she couldn't scream. Voldemort had bound her mouth shut using a silencing charm.

"You know, Ginny, you're probably the most cooperative girl I've ever pointed a wand at," he said sarcastically.

The snake-like man stared at her with a crooked, evil smile. "I suppose you're wondering why I've done this to you as opposed to killing you, correct? Well, you will see when it comes down to it."

He pulled her by the hair and dragged her down the passageway until they came to a sudden stop.

Ginny was positively horrified. Never in her life had her world been in so much panic. She could barely focus on what was going on. She did not even hear Voldemort yell a password, nor did she see the concealed door in front of her slide open to reveal the Great Hall, which, like the rest of the school, was in utter chaos.

But, it all came to a halt when Voldemort entered the room. Everyone stared, some in horror, some in shock.

There was no movement from any of them.

Ginny could see Voldemort raising his wand to his throat, increasing the volume of his voice.

"I would like to make this announcement out to Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. If they do not make their way into the Great Hall in two minutes, I will kill this teenage girl whom I have bound up beside me."

Tears were flowing out of Ginny's eyes, but she could not make a sound. Somehow, she knew this was the end. She was going to die. In a matter of moments, she was going to die.

&

The entire castle was silent. No one made a sound, except for Grindelwald, who was muttering something in German under his breath. But, he did not say a word to Dumbledore as the two geniuses made their way into the Great Hall followed by the throng that surrounded them.

Voldemort was now standing in the middle of the Hall, all the tables and chairs either overturned or smashed completely.

Neville could see Ginny Weasley, motionless but alive, beside the Dark Lord, who was staring threateningly at both Grindelwald and Dumbledore.

"Both of you bow down to me this very instant, or I will kill this girl," he said menacingly, clasping his left hand around Ginny's throat and thrusting his wand to her head.

"Put her down, Tom," Dumbledore warned calmly. "Your fight is not with her, but with us."

"Yes, my fight is with you. You called me a fool and spat in my face," Voldemort shouted, his red eyes now nothing but angry slits in his skull. "Neither of you gave me a chance to prove myself."

The room had gone still. Everyone had his or her eyes on Voldemort. Voldemort's eyes were locked on those of Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Neville knew this was his chance.

He slowly moved around behind Voldemort. No one even noticed him move.

"Put the child down," Dumbledore repeated, his wand pointed directly at Voldemort's heart.

"It's funny for you to say that, Dumbledore, when last I heard, you don't take much stock in little girls." Voldemort laughed hollowly. "Isn't this an ironic situation? The most infamous Dark Lord of the century about to kill a helpless teenage girl. It's déjà vu to you, isn't it, Dumbledore"

Dumbledore paled drastically and began to quiver, but no one knew why.

&

He remembered Ariana's poor, fearful face. He could see it in Ginny's, and he realized that Voldemort was right. This was the same situation, but it would not turn out the same way. He had promised Ariana at her grave that he would never let another child die as she had. He would never be such a fool again.

Riddle was the fool, he knew. He had done more damage to himself than to anyone else. His name would be defiled just as Grindelwald's had been. Only Grindelwald had had a heart somewhere deep down. Riddle had nothing. Not even a soul.

&

"You're such a coward, Riddle," Grindelwald's retort was an angry one. "You have to threaten a child's life to in order to come near us. You're too afraid to face us alone."

"I am NOT afraid!" Voldemort spat back.

"I see fear in your eyes," Grindelwald said calmy, a smile forming around his lips.

"I am a better Dark Lord than you ever were!" Neville could see Voldemort's back trembling now. He was losing control. "I have risen to bigger heights than you ever did, Grindelwald. And you were the one who thought I would never do so! I will win this war and you will bow down to me!"

"Ah., but that is where you are wrong, Riddle," Grindelwald chuckled slyly. "You will not win this war, because in a moment, you will be dead."

Grindelwald nodded his head in Neville's direction.

Neville knew it was his time. This was for Harry, his parents, and for every single person involved in this war.

He took the sword from out of the Sorting hat that Grindelwald had given him and plunged it through Voldemort's back.

It was the most triumphant moment of his life.

Voldemort screamed in horror and pain. Blood spurted from his heart and onto the floor. The Dark Lord released the motionless Ginny and fell to the ground, just as motionless as she had been.

&

Everyone in the room screamed in horror. Neville Longbottom had just stabbed Voldemort in the heart with Gryffindor's sword.

Several people ran to Ginny to release her from her spell, while Grindelwald strutted calmly over to Voldemort's body.

He poked the Dark Lord with his toe and said, "like I said, 'first rule of being a Dark Lord: never turn your back on anyone.'"

Sirius was in shock. Had Neville really just killed Voldemort? Was it possible? But, Sirius's heart began to sink rapidly, did that mean that Harry had died for nothing? That Neville, not he, was the subject of the prophecy?

The Death Eaters were scampering and screaming all around, running every direction. They knew it was over for them.

The Aurors and teachers now had the lead and were rounding up all of them. Sirius saw Remus and Ron with Wormtail who was balled up on the ground in his usual fetal position.

Professor Dunlap was still carrying Hermione, as she had wanted to be a part of the fight and not excluded, but now, with the looks on their faces, they seemed to be arguing over something.

Molly and Tonks, not paying attention to anything else, were hugging Ginny so tight that she seemed as though she needed to come up for air rather badly. Now, everyone was cheering and members of the Order were contacting the Ministry.

It was indeed the most blissful day of their lives.

Sirius was so fixed on all the commotion around him that he didn't notice it when Dumbledore walked up to him.

"The four of you should be congratulated," Dumbledore spoke softly.

"Congratulated?" Sirius couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was terribly upset that Harry had died for no reason at all. "I'm so upset I don't even know how to respond to that."

Of course, that was a response, and Sirius recognized the foolishness in the statement as soon as he said it, but there was nothing else he could say to express his feelings in the matter.

"Upset?" Grindelwald had joined in on the conversation. "For what reason might you be upset, Mr. Black? You helped save the Wizarding World from a horrible fate."

"Harry wasn't the subject of the prophecy after all." More tears were forming Sirius' eyes. He was sick of them by now, but he could not stop them. They were invincible. "That means that he died for no reason."

"No reason?" Both old men seemed shocked at an answer like that.

But, it was the truth. Sirius could find no reason for Harry's death at all. It just made him more miserable to think about it.

"Dear boy, Harry's death gave you the courage to go on and fight for what was right," Dumbledore assured him. "You realized how horrible the war was, and you now had something to drive you all to fight so that no one else would feel the pain that you did. Am I correct?"

Sirius thought about it for a moment. Dumbledore was right. With Harry gone, Sirius had been more determined than ever to fight in the war.

He nodded slowly. "Yes, you're correct."

"It was the same with my sister," Dumbledore's eyes suddenly became tearful. "If she had not died, I never would have known what was right. I would have gone on to be something more horrible than anyone could imagine. Isn't that right, Gellert?"

Grindelwald gave a small laugh, a sort of unpleasant and guilt-ridden laugh. "Yes, Albus. You are correct. You would have turned out just like me."

Now, Sirius knew that Dumbledore's memory being shown to them in the Pensieve was not a mistake. He had wanted them to see it so they knew that Harry's death had been for a reason. Dumbledore had changed. They could, too.

"What about Gryffindor's sword?" Ron and Remus had both joined the conversation, and were not looking too great at the moment. Ron's left arm had a huge gash in it, and Remus was covered in sweat. Who knew if it were his own. "Why did you have Neville use it?"

"Simply because wands are boring." Grindelwald had a completely serious look on his face when he said it. It was obvious it wasn't a joke, and from what Sirius read about him, he did enjoy traditional and bloody battles. "You point a wand at someone, and that person is killed instantly. You stab him or her with a sword, and he or she is forced to feel all the pain and suffering that person caused everyone else."

It was rather gruesome logic to Sirius, but it was true all the same.

"What about the prophecy?" Ron asked awkwardly, looking about as disgusted as Sirius felt after what Grindelwald had just said. "When we asked you if Harry's dying only meant that the prophecy was invalid because he was killed by someone else, you said we were right."

"Ah, yes. That I did say." Dumbledore answered Ron with a smile. "I was a large mistake on my part. But, everyone makes them, as you have clearly seen. I thought I had all the evidence to support that theory until Gellert came and gave me his own point of view on the situation."

Grindelwald gave another laugh, only this time, it was more satisfactory than the previous. "Yes. As soon as Albus told me of the prophecy, I automatically knew that Potter could not have been the one, as he had died. It was an impossibility. I knew it had to be the other boy. But, the last part of the prophecy was what puzzled me. How could one of them win when they both were supposed to be killed in the end? I had to find a way for the boy to live. It took me some thinking, when I remembered something: Voldemort was not careful and never observed his surroundings. He kept his focus on those in front of him, never behind. So, I told Longbottom to attack him from behind if he was ever distracted by something in front of him. In this case, Albus and I were the objects of distraction, so Longbottom had the perfect opportunity to stab him, and it worked." The former Dark Lord gave another sly smile.

Ron's eyes looked as though they were about to pop out of his head from the information he had just heard, either it was too much or it was unbelievable. Sirius put his bets on the former.

"Sirius?"

Sirius heard someone calling his name behind him and turned around. It was Hermione, still in Dunlap's arms.

"_Professor Dunlap_ has something to tell you," she said.

&

He had to do it. There was no way he would hide it from Sirius for the rest of his life. There was no way he _could_ hide it from him. He had to tell him. Besides, he had to comply to all the pestering to him that she had been doing.

"Sirius…." He began to speak. He was going to tell him, she knew. He had to.

Come on, Regulus. Spit it out, she thought eagerly, gripping his neck tightly so that she wouldn't slip. Her right leg was killing her.

"Sirius…." Regulus repeated timidly. Suddenly, he reached up to his face and pulled off the beard he was wearing. It came off with a scratchy, Velcro-like noise. Hermione was not expecting that! She had thought the beard was real all along.

Then again, he had been trying to disguise himself, so putting on a fake beard was rather appropriate.

Sirius could obviously recognize his brother without the beard because his face went as pale as chalk and his eyes went wide in astonishment.

Then, after about five seconds of speechlessness, he smacked Regulus across the face, but proceeded to engulf him in a bone-crushing hug with Hermione going along for the ride.

"You IDIOT!" Sirius shouted, sobbing uncontrollably now. Some of his tears were showering Hermione.

She felt like a happy canned sardine. One that was in desperate need of a visit to the hospital.

**End Note**: Hi guys! How did you like it? Was it an okay chapter? It's the last one before the epilogue. Please remember to review. I haven't been getting many of those lately. In fact, I only got one review for the last chapter. So please give me some reviews. All of you who have put me on your Alerts or Favorite Stories please do so especially, so that I know how you feel about my story and why you chose to put it there. Thanks.

Beaucoup d'amour à tous,

Amélie


	25. Epilogue

Another Day in the Department of Mysteries-Epilogue

_So there you have it, the real story of Voldemort's downfall. I have to say that I am immensely proud of everyone for all they did._

_But, no, I never expected it to turn out that way. I had always expected to be Voldemort's vanquisher, but things don't always turn out the way they're expected to, do they?_

_Anyway, now that the war is finally over, I probably should mention to you what became of everyone._

_For starters, Ron and Hermione eventually fell in love, what a shock, and married a few years after the war. They haven't had any children yet, but there's still time. They went back to school to finish their educations, much to Hermione's liking, and both became accomplished Aurors._

_Remus landed a high paying job at the Ministry shortly after the war ended. That may come as a bit of a shock with all the werewolf prejudices that people have, but after Ministry officials heard of all that Remus had done for the war, they realized what jerks they had been and decided to give him a chance, which, of course, he gladly accepted._

_Tonks ended up adopting little Brittany as her daughter and became one of the most respected Aurors in the field. I thought the last was rather appropriate of her, considering all the students she had successfully trained. Oh, and by the way, she and Remus are now dating. We'll have to see how that turns out._

_Neville and Ginny eventually married and now have four children named Kayla, Molly, Anna, and Jack. They have yet to get away from all the publicity that they received from being the "knight" and "damsel in distress" as many had dubbed them after the war, but they're getting use to it. Neville's actually kind of happy about it, to tell you the truth. For the first time in his life, he's being recognized for being something other than a klutz. But, it came as no surprise to me. I always had confidence in him. I knew he had the courage to do what was right._

_Cho has yet to be married. But, since the war, she has founded an organization for the helping of widows who have lost their husbands to unjust causes. Now, Cedric and I aren't quite sure if Cho considers herself a widow, but we're grateful for her to be thinking of us in her cause._

_Peter Pettigrew was sent to Azkaban, but not before apologizing to the world—and, more importantly, his mother— for his cruel, deceitful acts of betrayal. As you can imagine, she was more upset than anyone else, but accepted her son's apology after a few months._

_Dumbledore and Grindelwald stayed very good friends until Dumbledore's death three months after the war. But, Dumbledore did not die before telling his brother Aberforth how sorry he was for all the pain he had caused him as a result of Ariana's death. I have had the pleasure of speaking to Ariana a number of times, and she says that she does not, nor ever did, hold any blame on Albus for her death. I vividly remember the exuberant look on her face when she jumped into her brother's arms. It was indeed the happiest moment she ever had._

_As for Grindelwald, he returned to Germany but remains in hiding from the authorities. They'll never catch him, you mark my words._

_Regulus resumed his teaching position at Hogwarts, but took up summer residence at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Kreacher was so ecstatic at seeing his old Master back that he became a Hogwart's House-Elf just so he could be closer to him._

_And last, but not least, Sirius. He resumed his job as an Auror (he had held the position sixteen years previously), and met a beautiful named Jana Wilder. They married three years after their meeting and now have three children, James, Harry, and Lily. I'm very proud of Sirius for being able to endure so much in his life. His is the mark of a true hero._

_As for me, I'm very satisfied with my life, and I wish all of you the best._

_Yours Truly,_

_Harry James Potter_

**End Note:** C'est Fini! I hope all of you enjoyed my first fanfic ever! Please remember to review and comment on specific aspects of the story.

This story is dedicated

To Taylor,

To Vanessa,

To Stephanie,

To Danielle,

To Molly,

To Hena,

And To Tiffany,

Much Love to all of you. You are my sisters forever and ever.

Amélie


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